Nottingliamshire and Lincolnshire in 1888 : Class 1. 525 
by an endless wire worked by the engine to the top of a pole, 
fixed in or near the centre of the stack, upon reaching which it 
is released at the highest point, to be moved by hand where 
required. 
There is a good deal of Crown property in south Lincolnshire 
— entrance to which is at Michaelmas, and it certainly did not 
appear that these lands were any less deficient than others in 
their neighbourhood in building conveniences. 
Good authorities give from 30s. to 40s. per acre as a 
common expenditure for labour upon the larger fen farms. 
When many potatoes are grown, it is often run up to 50s. 
Lincolnshire takes the lead amongst the counties in the culti- 
vation of this tuber, and a very wide acreage is sown to it. It 
appeared indeed to the Judges, from what they themselves saw 
in their travels, that Lincoln ought to be able to supply the 
rest of England with potatoes. The area devoted to them 
widens yearly, not only in the fens but on the higher lands, to 
where they have rapidly extended, stimulated no doubt by the 
low price of other produce. 
The arable clays, which divide the Carr lands from the Wolds 
to the east, and from the Heath to the west, are farmed on the 
four-course system. But whether under plough or grass, many 
of them have not a very rich or inviting appearance to the 
stranger, and not a few of them must be very poor and thin, 
and look to be quite dropping out of profitable cultivation. 
The farmhouses, cottages, and outbuildings appeared to be, 
as a rule, good and sufficient on the larger farms and in the 
higher districts ; but, as has been said, upon the better land, 
where one would suppose it to be moi'e required, the building 
accommodation is decidedly inferior. 
Besides the advantages already specified, the Lincolnshire 
farmer possesses at least one other of inestimable value which 
must on no account be overlooked, and it is this : He not only 
has access to some of the very finest grass-land in the kingdom, 
and to a great deal more which is at all events very useful, but 
the worth of this great boon is infinitely increased to him by the 
manner of its distribution. So that, for instance, the light land 
farmers of the Wolds have a fine frontage of grazing land in th s 
fringe of famous marshes which run between their chalky hills 
and the sea. The Heath farmers also, and their highland neigh- 
bours, have access to a similar strip of grass, if not of equal 
quality to the former, running by the western foot of their oolite 
range. Similar advantages are enjoyed by many of the central 
and southern districts, where a happy intei'mixtui-e of grass and 
arable so frequently prevails. It is this judicious blending of 
