396 " Farming of Lincolnshire. 



presents itself; the light lands being excellent for breeding, and 

 the lower parts of the county ill adapted for that purpose, the 

 former have become a vast repository for supplying the rich 

 grazing grounds with sheep. On the fat pastures are required 

 large animals with plenty of wool, and thus the upland farmers 

 breed heavy sheep in order to suit their customers. A large 

 frame and a speedy growth are indispensable to the production of 

 great lamb-hogs, and a pen of small hogs would stand a poor 

 chance of sale at the large spring fairs of Lincoln, Boston, and 

 Caistor, &,c., which form the principal market for them. By the 

 above-mentioned cross, then, are secured a great natural size, 

 quick feeding properties, and warm fleeces ; in short, a breed 

 exactly suited to the soils, the climate, and the market. 

 Experience (no bad criterion) attests the truthfulness of this 

 inference — many instances of extraordinary growth and maturity 

 being annually produced ; and the names of breeders who yearly 

 exhibit at Boston and Lincoln fairs pens of hoggets weighing 

 from 25 lbs. to "62 lbs. per quarter each, are well known in most 

 parts of the county. 



6. The desirahlejiess or otherwise of increasing the proportion of 

 Stvedes in the Turnip Crop for Spring consumption. 



LTpon the Marsh lands and richer soils capable of producing 

 good swedes, they form half the root crop, and particular care is 

 bestowed upon the preparation of the land, the manuring, and 

 seeding, as on this portion of that crop the stock are mainly 

 dependent for their spring food ; and this variety of turnip 

 is believed to yield a much greater weight per acre, of better 

 quality, and safer from the attacks of frost than any other. 

 Swedes have thoroughly established themselves as the most pro- 

 lific, wholesome, and hardy kind of turnips on good land ; and 

 where they are scantily cultivated the reason may be looked for 

 in the inferiority of the soil or some other physical peculiarity of 

 the neighbourhood. Upon an average of the different districts of 

 the county, excluding the oolite and chalk hills where their growth 

 is very limited, probably not more than one-fifth of the root-crop 

 is swedes. Wherever they can be grown with advantage the pro- 

 portion has increased of late years, a fact which indicates that they 

 require superior management — the breadth sown having enlarged 

 with the general progress of husbandry. Being much more 

 relished by the fly than common varieties, swedes must be forced 

 in their early growth by artificial stimulants and compost 

 manures;* but such is the excellence of this root, that, under 



* Perhaps the cheapest and most useful of all composts is the following: — 2 bushels 



