Bardolpfi Fen. 



i05 



height) being erected upon the banks of Well Creek, dis- 

 charging the water through Salter's-lode Sluice into the Ouse. 

 The '' head" of water to be thrown against is sometimes 12 feet, 

 so that steam-drainage would be very expensive in so small a 

 fen, and part of it bad land. In 1840, an attempt was made to 

 introduce steam-drainage ; an engine was erected, and made to 

 work neither a water-wheel nor a pump, but some of Hall's 

 Patent Hydraulic Belts." After a trial, however, it was found 

 that the scheme would not answer; and Downham Fen still con- 

 tinues under wind- drainage, — although the farmer, in the midst 

 of his confidence and hopes, with his crops ready for the sickle, 

 has sometimes experienced sudden and complete ruin from an 

 unexpected fall of heavy rains deluging his lands ; while his mills 

 — his only hope — stood with their sails unmoved by a breath of 

 wind, and the fruits of the labour and industry of the past year 

 perished on the ground." The soil is peat, about 5 feet in 

 depth ; — there are only one or two fields which have not been 

 clayed. The land is higher near the river, and a few tile under- 

 drains have been laid there; but the greater part is too low and 

 wet to admit of such an improvement. The chief crops are wheat 

 and oats, but this fen has been badly managed, having had no 

 green crops on it for a long time, excepting a few patches of tur- 

 nips now and then on the higher lands, and a few acres of cole- 

 seed. Linseed oil-cake is used to improve the yard manure, a 

 few bones and a great many mussels" are put in the land — 

 which lies contiguous to the river, these shell-fish being brought 

 up in barges. It is singular that nut-trees have been discovered 

 beneath the soil, with sound good nuts upon them; the roots 

 which are found are nearly all of the sallow. Fourteen or fifteen 

 years ago the Ouse bank broke, by reason of a tunnel blowing up, 

 and nearly the whole fen was inundated. The harvest-men were 

 obliged to stand on a platform to reap the corn, being carried to 

 and from the high land in boats; and the farmers were some of 

 them compelled to row boats into their orchards in order to pluck 

 the fruit from the trees. 



Bardolph Fen. — North of this district is Bardolph Fen — compris- 

 ing 5235 acres. The drainage is by two principal mills, standing at 

 the extremity of the fen next the Ouse, into which the waters are 

 thrown, between Downham and Stow Bridge. The soil is generally 

 a deep moor, about 5 feet ; and both in this and Downham Fen 

 frequently occur white beds, at the surface apparently like chalk, 

 but consisting of decaying shells. The same remarks which have 

 been made respecting the management of Downham Fen will 

 also apply to this district ; most of it has been clayed once, but 

 the practice has been to keep cropping it one year after another, 

 vv^ith scarcely any fallow whatever, the course being coleseed, oats. 



