'Farming of Lincolnshire. 



387 



quickly feed, and have ample time to ruminate. An old grazing 

 rule is, " grass should be '21 hours old for a sheep, and 12 days 

 for a bullock.'' The richer spots produce tufts of coarse grass; 

 these must be mown, a small portion daily, so that the cattle may 

 eat the grass as it decays ; if left, they become so rank and sour 

 that nothing will touch them. The cliief attention of the grazier, 

 apart from a careful watching- of the progress and healthiness of 

 the animals, is devoted in the hot summer months to the stocking 

 of his fields. In some seasons the grass grows with such vigour 

 as to lessen its nutritious properties, and the pastures must be 

 crowded with all the stock they can possibly carry. Toward the 

 latter end of the summer a gradual thinning must take place, and 

 great care is needful in order to keep the pastures good. Fatting 

 beasts and sheep become then fit for market, and this affords facilities 

 for the proper management of the lands. Thistles are in general 

 carefully destroyed in this district ; when very numerous they are 

 mown, but the most common method is chopping with the spud, 

 and in a wet season drawing up with " tweezers." The drop- 

 pings of the animals are carefully spread, so as not to destroy the 

 grass. The proportion of hay is not great ; the m^eadows are 

 laid in" in April and May, and mown in June and July; the 

 eddishes furnish a valuable pasturage in the autumn for easing 

 the grazing lands as they fail. These meadows occasionally 

 receive a top-dressing of manure in the winter, which is well 

 brushed in. After harvest the stubbles afford a rest for the 

 grass-lands, for in spite of all the weeding the arable land pro- 

 duces much grass and weeds among the crops, and v/hen they are 

 removed both sheep and pigs over-run the fields to eat up what is 

 called " the shack." As the winter approaches, the remaining 

 store cattle are taken to the yards, and the sheep not put upon 

 coleseed or turnips are distributed over the pastures at the rate of 

 one per acre. Very few hedges are to be seen in the district 

 south of the towns, but the Marshes have both hedges and 

 ditches. The absence of hedges occasions the loss of many sheep 

 by drowning, and in winter the sheep frequently cross the ice of 

 the ditches and wander for miles over the country. There are 

 but few trees, and most of the bullock-pastures have stout posts 

 erected for the cattle to rub against. Underdraining has not yet 

 become general, but it has effected great benefits upon wet and 

 rushy pieces of grass. It is greatly needed, for the pastures 

 abound in low places and long hollows, which the rain always 

 fdls with water. The arable fen clay is difficult to work, always 

 either miry with wet, or hard and cracked by sudden drying; 

 when the season is favourable it produces fine crops of wheat, 

 oats, beans, and red mustard. A deep subsoil drainage and a 

 deep pulverization, the grand requisites of this district, are 



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