Imjyrovement of Peaty Ground. 



400 



insect. I might also add that there is a good deal of silt, or clay of a 

 silty nature, lying under the peat in many parts of the fen-lands, and the 

 wireworm appears there to be much more destructive if the lands are 

 not very well manured, so that the crops, particularly the spring-crops, 

 may grow right away without a check. 



" I have mentioned your note to a neighbour and much-respected 

 friend of mine, one of the best cultivators of the soil I ever saw, and he 

 falls in partly with your views of shallow ploughing. I certainly do 

 not. It is possible in the first instance, if you put on a small portion of 

 clay, by ploughing deep you may lose it ; then I would say in reply to 

 that, I Avould clay the land, and sow the crop without ploughing at all, 

 simply well harrowing or scarifying it, then breaking it up and well 

 mixing it. On some peaty land of wretched quality where 1 live I have 

 doubled, nay trebled, the produce by drainage and very heavy claying — 

 say more than 200 yards of clay carted on an acre of land — in the first 

 instance white marl, which I saw do little or no benefit ; then blue clay, 

 which did more to the wheat-crop than I could under any circumstances 

 expect. The turnips, I know, cut no great figure only where some horse- 

 manure was laid, and they promised to be of double the value of the 

 others. 



" I beg to remain, dear Sir, 



" Yours respectfuUj', 



" Wm. B. Wjngate. 



Harehy, Nov. 13/A, 1841." 



Mr. Wingate, as is shown by his letter, has adopted a course 

 of cropping which, in inferior hands, would be a severe one — two 

 corn-crops in every three years ; but that course is warranted by 

 his high farming, the consumption of 8 or 10 tons of oil- cake in 

 feeding the stock of 100 acres, and is justified by the produce : 

 for he has grown on land^ naturally an impassable waste, crops of 

 corn so heavy, and in such rapid succession, as fev/ of the old rich 

 loams of the country have been supposed able to yield. Mr. 

 Cooke, it will have been seen, observes in his letter, that, where 

 peat lies upon a gravel subsoil, it is of little value for want of clay 

 to give it solidity. Mr, Wingate, however, has carted 200 yards 

 of clay to the acre upon such land w-ith success. I have also 

 carted clay upon peat, but with less activity, not more than 40 

 loads to the acre ; yet, after this inferior dressing, the land is 

 supposed to become capable of bearing wheat^ and I can confirm 

 the statement made by ^Nlr. C. Johnson in his prize essay, that a 

 very small quantity of earth has a surprising effect in rendering 

 peat solid, which is the main object to be aimed at in its improve- 

 ment. In wet weather, even where the peat has been thorough- 

 drained and upon an oat-stubble, a horse will sink in to the 

 fetlock; yet, where so slight a dressing of clay as 40 cartloads 

 has been applied in the previous winter, he will find a firm 

 footing. 



