110 



Farming of NoTt1iamj)tonsMre. 



its progress bj many tributary streams running into it ; but the 

 rapid flow of the water is checked in its passage by the flour- 

 mills upon the stream, and by the bed of the river becoming 

 gradually choked up. An improvement is every year becoming 

 more necessary from the increasing extent of draining done on 

 the hills causing a more rapid flow into the valley. 



Public attention was called to this subject about two years 

 ago ; meetings were held, and a committee was appointed, and 

 reports on the river Nene drainage were drawn up by several 

 gentlemen, from which I have made the following extracts : — 



Zl The Rev. C. H. Hartsliorne' s Report^ December, 1848. — " It appears that 

 the meadow land in the valley of the Nene is at all periods liable to be placed 

 under water after a few hours' rain, and that, besides the certainty of an over- 

 flow of the river during the winter and autumn, few seasons pass by without a 

 summer flood. On these occurring the loss is most disastrous, since the entire 

 crop of mowing grass, when not cut, is greatly injured by the alluvial deposit, 

 and the hay rendered totally unfit for fodder, if, in fact, it is not swept from 

 the surface by the force of the current. The damage sustained on these occa- 

 sions is computed at tenfold the loss borne by the occupiers in ordinary seasons. 



" Independently, however, of the periodical returns of this calamity in the 

 summer season, which equally baffle all forethought and industrial exertion, 

 the winter floods are an unvarying and certain source of disappointment and 

 loss to the farmer. He is continually driven to pasture his sheep upon the 

 uplands, or else maintain them, before the severity of the weather would 

 necessarily compel him to do so, upon his turnips or artificial food. 



The actual fact of all these beautiful meadows near the Nene bearing no 

 return to the occupier from Michaelmas to Lady-day is, however, universally 

 admitted, and they are regarded merely in the light of half-yearly lands. In 

 the most propitious seasons they are held by him at a loss of \0s. per acre, 

 compared to what they would be worth if not liable to these casualties, being 

 one-third subtracted from the value of the land under different conditions, 

 whilst, as has been already intimated, in the common event of a summer's 

 flush of water, his prospects and his exertions are alike hopeless and unavailing, 

 being entirely deprived of every return from this portion of his occupancy, for 

 hay that has once been flooded is not only useless as fodder, but as manure also. 



" In illustration of this view of the question, an extensive occupier states 

 that he has only had five months' use of his meadow-land this season, being 

 flooded in the middle of April and in the middle of September. In the month 

 of July a considerable portion of his hay, then ready to carry, was entirely 

 spoiled through an illegal height of water being held up by the mill below, 

 which flowed back upon the land it had once passed through. Independently 

 of this ruin to his crop from causes which will shortly pass under review, he 

 estimates his loss of keep for two or three months, upon 94 acres of land, as 

 sufficient to feed 40 beasts and 300 sheep for the same period. Another intel- 

 ligent farmer considers the ordinary damage in the parish of Hardingstone, 

 upon 100 acres, as 40/. loss to the eating of the crop. Adopting then the 

 former estimate taken in kind, and coupling it with the 8000 acres returned 

 as the lowest number subject to injury, there is an aggregate loss of provender 

 during three months sufficient to support 32,000 beasts and 24,000 sheep. It 

 is more easy to compute the loss, than the benefit which would arise under an 

 amended system of drainage. In business ideas, it is perhaps hardly possible 

 to overrate the importance of having full power over the stream. Providence 

 intended it as a blessing — as a means of fertilizing the soil and filling the earth 

 with plenty ; and if man learned how to use it, the water may be made subser- 

 vient to a benefit equal in amount to the present damage it inflicts." 



