524 ixepori on the Farm, Prize ComjpetiUon xil j 
theories of the economists, have taken and kept the lead in their ' 
calling. I 
The fens of Lincolnshire are, as we have seen, of two kinds, j 
and both of them are for the most part highly productive. The , 
peaty fens owe almost all their fertility to the soapy blue clay I 
below them, which is so near as to be within reach of the plough i 
in some places, and where not it is cast from trenches, at very \ 
little expense, and spread thickly on the surface. The heavier | 
portions of the alluvial soils require under-draining. The hold- ! 
ings are small, 200 acres being considered a large one, and the 
farm buildings are mostly both inefficient and insufficient. Few ! 
roots are grown here, or cattle grazed in winter, and the holders 
of the best grass-lands, like those, for instance, round Spalding, | 
usually keep the beasts which they buy at the autumn fairs very 
thickly in their cramped yards upon straw and cake till the i 
spring, when they finish them on the grasses. ] 
The course of cropping on these lands is various enough, i 
but, so far as could be learnt, there is no great departure from 
the old rotation upon them of oats after a fallow, followed by 
seeds or pulse, and wheat again. Upon the peaty soils a good , 
deal of rape is grown. No doubt more potatoes have been | 
taken of late years after the fallow, and occasionally barley | 
after the wheat, on account of the low price of the latter, but it 
is a very risky crop upon the fens, whilst the wheat upon well- 
farmed land, and in a good year, is of almost unrivalled mag- , 
nificence. Few sheep are to be seen upon much of this district I 
in the winter, save where they are required to eat the rape in , 
the early part of it. 
Some of the peaty soils have been immensely enriched by a 
process called warping.^ The Isle of Axholme, at the north- 
western corner of the county, is a remarkable example of it. 
The low-lying land is there temporarily flooded from the rivers 
for the sake of the rich deposit left behind by the waters, and j 
very astonishing crops indeed, pai'ticularly of potatoes, are | 
obtained by the small cultivators who chiefly occupy it. j 
In the neighbourhood of Spalding, gigantic four-square stacks ' 
may be seen to tower well above the highest buildings. These 
often comprise the whole j'ield of straw from as many as 120 
acres of this productive land, or all the wheat i-icks of the stack- I 
yard. The sti-aw is carried as thrashed, sometimes for a hundred i 
yards or more, from the mouth of the shakers in large bunches ! 
held together by pin and chain. In this position it is drawn 
' Described at lengt}i by Jlr. J. A. Clarke in the Report above referred to. 
See pp. 371 et seq. Vol. XII. 1st Series (1851). 
I 
