100 



Bedford Level. 



under 2 or 3 feet of clay. The land has almost all been 

 *'gaulted" once, most of it twice, and much of it three times. 

 The common method of performing this was, to let the clay lie as 

 long as possible to be pulverized by the frost ; but by this means 

 it was quickly "lost" in the peat soil, and the land soon required 

 to be clayed again. The most general custom now is to plough 

 in the clay very soon after being spread, and by thus being un- 

 exposed to the air, it remains in small lumps, keeping the soil in 

 a more consolidated state for a long time. It has been previously 

 remarked, that the black surface soil consists of the '"moor" 

 (which in most places forms the subsoil, 1 or 2 feet deep) in a 

 further state of decomposition, from tillage and the influence of the 

 atmosphere ; and this substance (which is dug and dried into small 

 sods called '-'turfs" or cesses,'' for fuel) renders the land wet and 

 cold ; so that the aim of the fen farmer is to get rid of it in the best 

 way he can. For this purpose it is torn up wdth a subsoil-plough, 

 sometimes having 6 horses; — the harder portions, called '^'clunch," 

 rising up in immense clods several stones in weight. This is crum- 

 bled by the frost; the land is soon after clayed," and has then a 

 most valuable and excellent alterative applied to it; — the moor, 

 incorporating with the peat earth, becomes like it, and thus a very 

 deep rich soil is formed. Throughout the whole of the Fens, the 

 land which is not real peat-soil, having a portion of silt mixed 

 with it, is liable to ''honeycomb" during frost; that is, the 

 frost separates about a 2 -inch stratum of the surface soil into a 

 netlike assemblage of small lumps, the soil beneath this per- 

 forated crust remaining exceedingly soft and light. This hard 

 crust — pinching the blades of wheat whilst the roots are in the 

 loose earth below — appears to rise, and the young plants are thus 

 drawn out from their roots and laid on the top of the land. The 

 pure black soil is not subject to this singular process, but freezes 

 into a solid piece ; on the lowest and wettest portions of silty peat 

 it does immense mischief. 



A very large quantity of land in this Level was a few years ago 

 subject to be drowned by a heavy downfall, and some districts 

 by a breach of the barrier banks from an overflow of high land 

 water ; but the improved drainage and practice of " claying" have 

 improved the value of the land cent, per cent., and there are 

 many instances of farms being purchased (within the last 70 or 

 80 years) at 5Z. per acre, which are now worth from 30/. to 50/. 

 per acre. Thirty years ago a farm of upwards of 500 acres was 

 bought for 9Z. per acre, and is now worth more than 35Z. per 

 acre. Wheat is the staple crop, and by high farming alternate 

 crops are grown, varying the intermediate ones with beans, clover 

 (both for seed and feed), rye-grass, &c., coleseed, and turnips. 

 In the parish of March (containing 14,000 acres of fen land) 



