58 
Farming of Cambridgeshire . 
turies deprived of the action of the air and sun ; and the furrows, 
and sides of furrows, much below the original bottom of surface 
soil, are now become, by being moved by the plough, and by the 
action of the frost and summer's sun, fair surface soil. 
Jf these lands were ploughed down and got level, as they would 
have been in the eastern district, they would lie in the following 
manner ; and the following sketch will at once clearly show the 
advantage of the latter system : 
Hollow 
Hollow 
These lands are two yards wide, and made to fit the drill. 
In riding over several thousand acres in the month of Decem- 
ber, I found only three men hollow-draining ; two were on the 
estate of Lord Hardwicke, at Wimpole, putting in drain-tiles on 
very flat land, 7 yards apart and only 21 inches deep; the other 
was on the hill near H alley — he was at work upon one of the 
old furrows of a high-backed field, with lands two rods wide, and 
putting the drains in only 14 inches deep, filling up with haulm 
and bushes cut from the hedge-row border. This surely could 
not be looked upon as a very expensive improvement ; yet it is 
wonderful what great improvement is effected even by this im- 
perfect and partial attempt at draining. In the flats of the parish 
of Tadlow, &c., I found draining going on in every direction, 
and the land appeared to be well farmed. A large portion of 
this district belongs to Downing College ; and I think they would 
much benefit their tenants, without injuring the estate, were 
they to remove all the hedge-row timber, and allow the width of 
the hedge-rows to be lessened, as the injury sustained from hedge- 
row timber is incalculable. From Wimpole to Hatley I found 
a large tract of land very badly cultivated, not only covered with 
thistles, couch-grass, &c., but sadly in want of that first and 
great improvement on heavy clays, viz. thorough draining. It 
certainly was a description of land that would repay the least for 
outlay of capital ; but so long as such lands are kept in cultivation, 
it is only by the judicious application of capital and good farming 
that any return for the capital employed can be made : and unless 
such soils are well thorough-drained, well ploughed, and kept 
clean, their occupiers cannot, I am confident, realize a profit. It 
was a bad sort to have in hand, and appeared to me to require a 
