56 
Farmimj of Cambridgeshire. 
and the flat or lower portion of the parish of Tadlow, and a por- 
tion of Wimpole and Orwell. 
The land is of a good deep staple from these villages to the 
western side of the county : as you ascend the range of hills you 
find the soil of a thin staple and very poor, resting upon a tough, 
retentive, tenacious, clayey subsoil of little value, and which has 
not as yet been well farmed. You here perceive the ])lan our 
forefathers adopted to get rid of the water; for instead of taking 
the water from the land, they endeavoured to take the land from 
the water. And this they endeavoured to do by ploughing the 
land on to what is now called high backs. The plan adopted was 
to begin to plough by commencing in the middle of the land, or 
gathering ; and they have thus for centuries continued to gather 
up the land. They gather up twice and split once. These 
lands, formerly lying in the common-field state, are ploughed of 
all sizes, and running in every direction, none scarcely being found 
that are straight; and since the enclosures of the various parishes 
they have been continued in the same form and shape. The plan 
is to hollow-drain up the furrows of each land. In fact, they 
cannot drain in any other direction, in consequence of the high 
elevation of the ridge of each land. 
I am well aware it may justly be said none are so well ac- 
quainted with the best system of farming land of any description 
in any locality as those who have been situated on the spot all 
their lives. Yet allow me to draw attention to the vast improve- 
ments that have taken place in nearly every district and descrip- 
tion of soil within the last half-century. Look what claying and 
draining have done for the fens ; it has so consolidated and con- 
densed the lands, as to render that which was formerly of little 
worth now the most productive and valuable soil of any in the 
kingdom. 
See what bones and guano, &c. have done for the thin-skinned, 
poor, light, hungry lands. Observe the neatness of the heavy 
land district on the eastern side of the county, every field being 
ploughed straight on the 3 or 6 feet lands, no horses being 
allowed to walk on the land, all going in the furrows. But it is 
not so in this western district : here both horses and carts must 
tread and poach on the land. I am well aware it is contended 
you would ruin the land by ploughing it down and getting it flat, 
so as to be able to plough on any sized lands we pleased, or drain 
it in any direction. T know that it is stated by practical men of 
the district that we should get the furrows too strong, while the 
middle or heading of the stetch would grow little or nothing. 
Supposing their observations to be correct, it most fully proves 
to me the advantages of deep ploughing on these heavy lands, 
for the present soil of the furrows consists entirely of the original 
