106 



Norfolk Fens, 



^vheat, beans, wheat, beans, wheat, &c., but little or no seeds, and 

 not 100 sheep grazed on the whole fen. Artificial manures are 

 of course employed to enable the land to bear this ; but in conse- 

 quence of the inefficient drainage, a great portion of the manure 

 applied, being washed downwards into the wet and spongy moor, 

 soaks through it into the ditches, and a remedy by underdraining 

 is scarcely practicable because of this wetness. A good steam- 

 drainage is much needed in both these fens, to dry and condense 

 the stratum of moor ; and some good dressings of clay, com- 

 bined with deep subsoil-ploughing to break up the moor^ are 

 required, thoroughly to improve them. 



Magdalen Fen. — North-eastward of Bardolph Fen is a part of 

 Marshland called Magdalen Fen," containing about 4000 acres, 

 which until the year 1833 was under the ruinous system of windmill 

 drainage ; and the following instance gives a striking contrast be- 

 tween the two methods of wind and steam, A farm of nearly 700 

 acres, paying 29 1 1, per annum drainage-tax, lost the occupier 3000Z. 

 during the last five years of that wretched drainage ; after a 

 great deal of trouble and expense an engine of 40-horse power 

 has been erected, and the same farm is now loell drained at a cost 

 of only 254Z. per annum. This fen is on a lower level than 

 Bardolph Fen, having a " head" of 8 or 10 feet, and sometimes 

 12 or 13 feet; and in wet seasons the engine is hard-pressed to 

 lift out the water, a large basin (for the engine to throw into) 

 being required to hold the water, which can pass through the 

 sluice into the Ouse only at low tide. The soil is black peat, 

 resting upon beds of clay and silt. Before the improved drainage, 

 the crust of moor was about 4 feet in thickness, but it has now 

 become so reduced and compressed that it is not more than 

 2 feet deep in any part, and in many places the clay may be 

 ploughed up. 



The old system was to pare and burn for oats, next take a 

 crop of rye, and then let the land lay itself down with couch, 

 grass, reeds, &c., for three or four years. In consequence of 

 this, too much of the peat has been burnt away, and the farmers 

 find that their land will, ere long, be mixed with too much clay 

 and silt. A great portion of this fen (all arable) has been clayed 

 twice : the first plan being to clay the coleseed stubbles, and to 

 sow oats upon the fresh clay just as it was thrown out from the 

 " dikes," without ploughing ; but it is now done before and after 

 any crops, as early as possible in the winter to have a good frost 

 upon it, and ploughed-in in spring. Immense quantities of 

 trees and roots are being constantly dug up in this fen, good fir- 

 poles are found, and the roots (which are all fir and burn fiercely, 

 being still full of turpentine) are so plentiful that, though every 

 year all that the plough touches are taken up, still numbers are 



