304 On the Agricultural Improvements of Lincolnshire. 
with having fed off two- thirds of these seeds upon it in the 
summer, and so restored to the j^round what it had brought forth, 
or even with having given oil-cake to his ewes in October upon it, 
this practical farmer buys rape-cake, which he throws on his 
land at the rate of 4 cvvt. to the acre, when he has ploughed the 
ground and pressed it for wheat-sowing. Thus in the four years' 
course, the turnips obtain bones, purchased, the barley obtains 
oil-cake eaten by the sheep, purchased, the seeds obtain the dung 
made with oil-cake that has been purchased, and the wheat obtains 
two-thirds of the seeds fed on the land ; oil-cake for the fatting 
ewes purchased, and rape-cake at its own seed-time also purchased. 
This repetition of dressings is, I should think, quite unexampled. 
The result is noble crops upon land for which a few years since 
the rent was paid by two rabbits an acre. The yearly outlay, in- 
deed, on manures may well amount to a second rent ; but the 
tenant (who occupies other farms also) is regarded as a prosperous 
man. Another farm of 1000 acres, enclosed at the same time by 
Mr. Chaplin from the same warren, is held by a tenant who last 
year kept 110 beasts in his straw-yard, and bought 80 tons of oil- 
cake. The beasts could not have cost less than lOOOZ., nor the 
oil-cake less than 640Z. This expenditure, it should be observed, 
is not in diminution of the investment in sheep, the ordinary 
stock of such land. Indeed it appeared to me, on the contrary, 
that the flocks of sheep were unusually numerous, and the follow- 
ing statement seems to bear out that impression : — A farm of 
500 acres, having 125 acres of turnips, is said to winter from 
10 to 12 sheep per acre, that is from 1250 to 1500 sheep. The 
breed, too, is the improved Lincoln, which, though very inferior 
to the Down sheep in quality, exceed them in weight, and conse- 
quently in their demand for food, in the proportion of five to four ; 
and these sheep are in addition to 40 or 50 beasts in the straw- 
yard. Such is Lincoln Heath, lately a warren ; now on a bright 
frosty day in December like a sheep-market. It remains only 
to show how far the example of Lincolnshire farmers may be 
imitated in other parts of the country ; but first I ought to men- 
tion some points in which I think their own farming might be 
improved. 
Their ploughs, though drawn by two horses, excepting on heavy 
land, where three are employed, are heavy swing-ploughs, for 
which the new light wheel-ploughs ought to be substituted. In 
some points too East Lothian has surpassed them. The Lin- 
colnshire horses are slow ; the Clydesdales quick, stout, and in 
higher condition. The Lincolnshire waggons are very ponderous 
masses of timber. In the north, light one-horse carts only are 
used : and here, as the question of carts or waggons is an im- 
portant one, I will mention an experiment lately made at my re- 
