Farming of Lincolnshire. 



391 



and many animals (of a laro^e breed) are made into pork. One 

 farmer lately sold at Boston 1000 stones of pork to one butcher, 

 and had upwards of forty fat hogs at one homestead, weia^hing 

 35 stones apiece. Barley meal, wheat offal, and potatoes are the 

 general food, but steamed turnips and mangolds have been tried 

 with success. A cheap apparatus for steaming is made by fitting 

 a tin head and pipe to the copper used for boiling linseed, &c. 

 The steaming-pans, consisting of two liquor casks brandy 

 pieces") furnished with lids, and hung by iron bearings (mid- 

 way up their sides) upon posts, so as to turn over for emptying. 

 One steamer is cooking its contents while the other is being 

 emptied and filled. The whole may be obtained for less than 2Z. 



In the management of manure nothing peculiar is to be noticed; 

 there are few tanks or liquid -manure carts, and, with the excep- 

 tion of a farmyard at Revesby, probably no instance of the dung 

 being preserved under cover. Near most farmsteads is a muck- 

 heap — exposed to all the abstractive influences of sun, wind, and 

 shower — which is augmented from time to time by fresh manure 

 from the yards. The manure, however, always accumulates many 

 feet in thickness in the yards, and is " turned over " in the spring, 

 about 6 weeks before required for use, being then in its best state 

 (according to Davy) for forcing vegetation. Asa general rule 

 better care is taken of this article, and the farmyards are kept 

 cleaner and neater, where the buildings are good ; carelessness 

 and waste appertaining chiefly to the inferior premises. A rick- 

 yard is an indispensable portion of a farmstead, but in the elevated 

 districts of this county a larare proportion of the corn is stacked 

 in the fields. Upon the Wolds this practice appears to have 

 been lately on the increase as far as regards v/heat — the barley 

 being generally carried home. One advantage seems to be the 

 saving of time in harvest. The corn ripening a week or two 

 backwarder than over the generality of the county, and the 

 weather often turning into sudden wets, a saving of two or three 

 days becomes precious. The wold fields and farms are so large 

 that a central homestead must necessarily be at a great distance 

 from much of the cropping, and therefore the amount of time 

 gained by " stacking abroad " is very considerable. In the low 

 country the badness of the roads effectually prevents this system 

 from being followed ; the corn could not be carted home at any 

 required time to be thrashed, and if thrashed in the field and the 

 straw left there, a very great inconvenience and loss to the farm- 

 yard would obviously arise. On the chalk-hills, however, the 

 roads (being chalked and then coated with flint) are passable all 

 the year round, and the barns generally afford larger accommoda- 

 tion for mowing and thrashing. Greater safety in case of fire is 

 a great consideration ; it being common, on the Cliff and other 



