Farming of Cambridgeshire. 
53 
ditch out clean. This applies more to the lower spit, which is 
cut out with a narrow draining-spade,* about 1^ inch wide at the 
lower end, and 12 to 16 inches deep. The moulds left are 
all cleaned out with a bent scoop or hoe. The workman as 
he proceeds in his main necks each common ditch as he comes 
to it : these mains are dug about 2 inches deeper than the com- 
mon drain. The drains are then filled up with bushes and straw 
or turf cut from the fens in the Isle of Ely ; and some are done 
by ramming the lower spit of clay on to bridges drawn along the 
bottom of the drain. When filled up with wood and straw, great 
care should be taken in the manner of putting the bushes and 
wood in, so as not to meet the current of water : the wood is 
pressed in the drains by a crotch stick, and the side boughs and 
crooked parts have a slight cut made with the bill, so as to make 
them more readily yield to the pressure of the stick : this prevents 
the breaking and putting in of the sides of the drains. A little 
straw is scattered on the top of the wood, and pressed on it, 
and by the best farmers great care is taken in filling the earth in : 
the lower spits are taken up with the hand and laid upon the 
straw, and trod down with the foot. The objection stated to fill- 
ing in with the shovel until this is done, is, that the sides of 
the furrows of the surface-soil roll in first; and as soon as the straw 
and bushes decay, this, not being of so adhesive a nature, falls to 
the bottom of the ditch and creates an impediment, and at such 
places the ditches are apt to blow up. But by the tough clay 
spits being put in first, they settle down, by treading at first, and 
afterwards by pressure, close over the straw ; and when the straw 
and wood decay, form a compact arch, leaving a hollow space for 
the water to flow. The plan pursued when filled up with turf is 
by the workman going forwards and laying the turf in the drains : 
the ends of the turf should touch each other; these are pressed in 
with the foot of the drainer as he proceeds, and the ditches being 
cut tapering, getting narrow below, they act as a complete wedge, 
and leave a hollow space below of about 5 inches deep. These 
pieces of turf are cut about 14 inches long. 
The method adopted in ramming is to make bridges consisting 
of four pieces of oak plank, about 5 to 6 inches deep, and nearly 
the size of the drain, not fitting too tight, but just filling up the 
* This narrow spade, or lance-headed tool, though probably it has been 
used for at least a century in the eastern counties, I have found superior 
to any other lor laying inch-pipes in a tenacious clay free from stones. 
As compared with the long-handled tool used in my own neighbourhood, it 
enables one workman to do the work of two, and with greater ease. The 
use of it is peculiar, as two side-cuts are made and then a cross-cut, but 
is easily learnt, and the tool is a favourite with workmen who know it.— 
Ph. Pusey. 
