Black- Sluice Drainage. 



127 



may be noticed, that whenever the seeds are eaten off so as to 

 leave the land bare, the following wheat crop is always very much 

 injured. The land is very subject to ''honey-comb," and as a 

 preservative against its ill effects, a new plan has been lately tried, 

 which keeps the soil solid and unparched by the sun, and its 

 requisite moisture unabstracted by the wind. By means of a drill, 

 made with coulters similar to the tines of a scarifier, the wheat is 

 sown upon the coleseed stubbles without ploughing (and thereby 

 lightening) the well-trodden and compressed surface. This simple 

 method of wheat-sowing after a fallow crop is quite new ; but the 

 trials already made have proved entirely successful, — the crops 

 thus sown having been stronger and finer than any others. Un- 

 derdraining has been practised only in the lowest and wettest 

 parts of the fields, in places where top-gripping (which is not ge- 

 nerally done) was found necessary. A great many quick-hedges 

 are being planted, which will be a great improvement to this 

 country ; a trench about 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep is dug round 

 the field (thus taking out the obnoxious stratum of moor), and is 

 filled up again with a mixture of clay and peat soil, in which the 

 quick grows exceedingly well. Upon the whole, very little oil- 

 cake is used in these fens; but about 12 bushels of bone-dust per 

 acre are usually sown with the coleseed, any other kind of arti- 

 ficial manure being rarely used. 



South-eastward of this long range of fens is ''Holland Fen," 

 called by the Witham Act the ^' Second District." It is bounded 

 on the north-west by Kyme Eau ; on the west, by South Kyme 

 and Heckington Fens ; on the south, by the " Hammond Beck," 

 which separates it from the parishes of Swineshead and Kirton- 

 holme ; on the east by Boston, and north-east by the river Wi- 

 tham, from near Boston to Tattershall Ferry-bridge. 



This fen, containing 22,000 acres, was drained and inclosed 

 under the Black-sluice Drainage Act in 1765 ; before which 

 period it was an open common, stocked by persons who claimed a 

 risrht, belono-ing^ to the eleven towns of Holland. The rental 

 before inclosure was 3600/., hut directly after, it let for 25,300/., 

 and is noio most heautifid and valuable land I 



The drainage is a natural one by the Hammond Beck, the 

 North Forty-feet (which lies wholly in this fen), and other smaller 

 drains, uniting with the South Forty-feet, which empties itself into 

 the Witham at Boston by the Black Sluice. This is an excellent 

 drainage ; but will be still further improved by the works that are 

 now in progress for the benefit of the low lands near Bourn. 



The soil of Holland Fen is a fine loam, having a subsoil of 

 clay, with a mixture of silt. The most general mode of manage- 

 ment on the best lands is a five-field system ; on the inferior, a 

 four-field system. The greater portion is sown with wheat ; the 



