Black- Sluice Drainage, 



123 



4 feet. The soil of Bourn Fen is peat, with a clay subsoil ; but 

 having been badly drained, the black soil has remained very deep. 

 A steam-engine has lately been erected at a place called " Guth- 

 ram Gote;" but great opposition was carried on by the Black 

 Sluice commissioners, so that an immense sum of money was ex- 

 pended in draining about 4600 acres. A 30 horse-engine throwing 

 into the Forty Feet, now drains well this district of very wet land, 

 subject to a breach of the Glen Bank, which generally destroyed 

 the crops. Previous to this improvement, it was not well ma- 

 naged ; but now that the farmers have a better security for the 

 outlay of their property, great improvements are going forward in 

 " claying," and extra management generally. 



Morton Fen is of a similar description, but more northerly than this 

 the soil becomes a deep black loam; and the farms are still subject to 

 the ruinous system of wind drainage. The soil of Pinchbeck North 

 Fen, Surfleet and Donington, &c. Fens, is of a loamy nature, consisting 

 of a mixture of clay and moor, with a strong clay subsoil. The low 

 lands are drained hy wind-engines, and therefore liable to be flooded at 

 certain periods. The country is principally arable, well planted with 

 thriving quick-hedges, and is in a fair average state of cultivation ; having 

 been in an improving condition for the last few years, but still capable 

 of much greater improvement by miderdraining, which is not practised 

 to any great extent. Paring and burning is almost an obsolete custom, 

 and claying is not required on this soil, as it already contains a sufficient 

 quantity of clay. Perhaps the more general rotation of cropping pur- 

 sued throughout the whole of this district is a four-field system, — the 

 fallow being coleseed, then a white crop, next seeds or beans, and after 

 that, wheat. Bones are found to answer well on the higher lands, but 

 artificial manures are not generally used. 



Westward of South Kyme Fen (the most northerly of the 

 district just described), and the Carr-dike, is another breadth 

 of fen, called by the Witham Drainage Act the Fifth District. 

 Anwick Fen, containing 1097 acres, was drained and inclosed in 

 1792, before which there was no road across it, and the whole 

 rental amounted only to 54/. The inclosure, however, raised the 

 annual value immediately to 703/., and it has now become ex- 

 cellent land. The moor is 3 or 4 feet deep, and most of the land 

 has been clayed. The drainage is still by windmills. In North 

 Kyme Fen there are a great many mills here of Dutch construc- 

 tion, these fens having been drained by the Flemings more than 

 a century before the inclosure of Anwick Fen. 



There is a great variety of soil in the " Fifth District/' — clay, 

 gravel, and peat, with a subsoil of both. The fens on the east of 

 the Carr-dike are better and higher land than those on the 

 west (including Anwick Fen, &c.) ; and but a small portion has 

 been clayed, — there being no need for such an operation, as a 

 great part of the black soil has been "lost" by burning, tillage. 



