Marshland. 



Ill 



being- a rich dark loam. These lands sustain very heavy stocking 

 — from 8 to 12 half-bred Down-and- Leicester sheep per acre, 

 with 1 steer to 4 acres. The arable lands in this part of Marsh- 

 land are very productive, growing large quantities of potatoes, 

 besides several crops of corn and pulse in succession. 



Marshland Smeath, containing 1572 acres, is an exceedingly 

 rich tract, being a strong heavy loam, with a subsoil of clay and 

 silt mixed, and in some few places, moor, being " skirty " along 

 the boundary drain which parts it from Marshland Fen. Dug- 

 dale mentions a famous plain, called the Smeath, which, being 

 common to all the tov/ns in Marshland, maintaineth at least 

 thirty thousand sheep ; and yet is not of a larger extent, in the 

 widest part of it, than two English miles." This was enclosed 

 under the Marshland Fen Drainage Act, and is now most part of 

 it arable, with only a few pieces of pasture. It is so fertile 

 that, 1st, oats ; 2nd, seeds; 3rd, wheat; 4th, beans; 5th, wheat, 

 &c., are continually grown; the land being thus cropped (with a 

 dead fallow at long intervals, and a great deal has never been 

 fallovved at all) witliout any manuring loliatever. Very little 

 artificial manure is used in the whole of Marshland. Under- 

 draining has been introduced during the last six or seven years, 

 and will most likely become general in a short time, though not 

 a tenth of the land has been done at present. Wood-draining 

 has been done with good effect, and wedge, or sod-draining has 

 been found to stand well for five or six years ; but both these 

 methods have nov/ given place to the best and safest one of tile- 

 draining. The drains are usually about 18 yards apart, and 3^ 

 feet in depth ; the tiles or pipes " are tubular, fitting together 

 in rings of 5-inch breadth, called "collars," or sometimes "rests" 

 are used, that is, half-collars, which hold the ends of the pipes 

 Jiusli with each other. The general rate of payment to labourers 

 for this work is 55. (Sd. per score,'' that is, twenty 16J feet rods, 

 making about o^d. per rod ; and the men will earn thus about 

 2s. (jd. per day. 



A large extent of land has been added of late years to this dis- 

 trict. Among other acquiremxcnts, the tract of 786 acres, formerly 

 part of the Old Lynn channel, lying between the Old Marsh 

 lands and the Eau Brink Cut, may be considered as part of 

 Marshland. This, which is now becoming good land, was once 

 the great impediment to the passage of the Fen waters. Marsh- 

 land Fen, cis before stated, formerly served as a receptacle for the 

 flood-waters, and seldom any flood-water passed to sea until about 

 Christmas, or vvhen the fen was full; and this being also the case 

 with the Hundred-feet Washes, the whole combined was one 

 great cause of the sand-banks forming across the channel of the 

 old river, in consequence of having so little ebb water for eight or 



