Middle Level, 



101 



and in Chatteris Fen (about J 0,000 acres) a common rotation is — 

 1st, coleseed; 2nd, oats; 3rd, wheat; 4th, seeds; 5th, wheat; or 

 when the seeds remain for two years the lea is deep ploughed in 

 winter for fallow. Or sometimes — 1st, coleseed; 2nd, wheat; 

 3rd, seeds ; 4th, wheat ; and often 5th, beans ; and 6th, wheat 

 again. A very great quantity of linseed oilcake is used in the 

 farm-yards, and bone-dust for the green crop invariably. Rape- 

 cake and guano are used to a considerable extent, and it is also 

 become a common custom to sow white mustard with guano, to be 

 ploughed-in for manure. About Ramsey and Whittlesey the 

 mode of management is much the same, the usual course of 

 cropping pursued on the estates of Mr. Fellowes being — 1st, 

 coleseed ; 2nd, oats ; 3rd, wheat ; 4th, seeds ; 5th, wheat. Some 

 farmers occasionally take oats after coleseed (which has had 10 

 or 12 bushels of bones per acre), then wheat, next "clay" for 

 oatSj and then m.anure for wheat again. Very few turnips are 

 grown, but some excellent crops of carrots and field-beet are pro- 

 duced. In many places some extraordinary yields of wheat have 

 been obtained ; — some farms averaging 6 qrs. per acre, and some 

 single fields producing 7 or 8 qrs. per acre. The most general 

 breed of sheep is the long-woolled ; and they are fed upon cole- 

 seed for three-fourths of the year, — the principal part of the seeds 

 being usually mown. 



Near Whittlesey Mere is Holm Fen, of about 5000 acres, which 

 not many years ago was an immense reed shoal — the resort of 

 almost all kinds of waterfowl ; but it is now inclosed, has been 

 wonderfully improved by claying, and bears abundant crops of 

 corn. Adjoining to it is Middlemoor, containing about 2500 

 acres, spoken of by Arthur Young, in a.d. 1800, as *'a watery 

 desert, growing sedge and rushes, and inhabited by frogs and 

 bitterns;" it is now fertile, well cultivated, and profitable land. 

 The clay in this locality is found at a great depth, — perhaps 7 or 

 9 feet from the surface — so that, although there are but few 

 pieces of land in this part of the Fens which have not been clayed 

 once, and many twice, yet it is not practised so much as is need 

 ful ; the operation (at this great depth) costing about 4Z. per acre. 

 An encroachment has been made upon Whittlesey Mere (which 

 will shortly be completely drained) ; and a steam-engine has been 

 erected, which drains the new inclosure from the Mere — of about 

 500 acres — throwing the water into the Mere. Ramsey Mere, 

 containing more than 560 acres, and Ugg Mere, a smaller sheet 

 of water, were drained and inclosed a few years ago ; each having 

 a windmill throwing its water into the Nene. Ramsey Mere, 

 which once grew enormous quantities of long reed (used for 

 thatching in the neighbouring counties), now comprises three 

 farms of beautiful land, on a higher level than the surroynding 



