Drahuiye of VVhittlesea Mere. 
141 
bklrt-land, good crops of it were thrown in even the second and 
third year, the vahie of which was on an average iiO?. and 4().v. 
per acre respectively. 
The rich allm ial soil, thickly studded with shells, and largely 
impregnated with animal matter, was, after these preliminary 
i ri)j)])iiigs, available at once for the production of wheat and 
oats, and the wind, Avhich, in the autumn of Ibol was curling 
the blue water of the lake, in the autumn of 1853 was blowing- 
in the same place over fields of yellow corn. While however 
tlie uncovered bed of the Mere, and the reed-shoals, yielded so 
generously to the hand of improvement, the more arduous task 
remained of bringing into profitable cultivation the large tract 
of peat-land surrounding them on the south and south-west sides. 
On this unproductive tract, as has been said, a heavy tax had 
been imposed, and it was a matter of deep interest to devise the 
readiest and most effectual way of bringing it into a remunerative 
condition. 
To subdivide the district into fields, to pare and burn the 
surface, and to obtain from the broken-up peat-soil some in- 
different crops of coleseed and oats, would have helped at any 
rate to civilize the appearance of the country, and possibly might 
liave shown some margin of receipts over and above the drain- 
age-taxes payable on the land, but undoubtedly it would not 
have paid as a farming operation, and no tenants would have 
been found to sink their capital in such an unpromising specu- 
lation. 
The ordinary method of improving the black peaty soil of the 
Fens is to give it a coating of the underlying gault, but the prac- 
tical use of the gault is limited by the depth at which it lies 
beneath the surface. It is excavated from narrow trenches at 
regular intervals in the field which is about to receive a coating^ 
of it, and the expense of the operation depends entirely on the 
depth at which it is found ; at 4 or 5 feet the men in the trenches 
can throw it out with ease, and the advantage to the land being^ 
great, and the expense not more than from 4Z. to 5/. per acre, it 
is a highly remunerative process ; but at 9 or 10 feet the case is 
different : and as the benefit to be derived from an ordinary coat- 
ing of gault does not last more than seven or eight years, there 
is of course a certain depth beyond which it would be unre- 
munerative to attempt the process of raising it. 
In the case of the district we are considering, this point is far 
exceeded, the average depth at which the gault lies below the 
surface being about 15 feet. The above-named process is there- 
fore inapplicable here, and consequently another method of ferti- 
lizing the peat-tract has been adopted. It consists in covering 
the bog with soil conveyed by means of a portable railway from 
certain points in the old bed of the Mere, where it can either lie 
