Farmiiuj of Cambridgeshire. 
59 
considerable outlay of capital to get it in good order. On 
the estate at Childerly, belonging to Colonel Calvert (which 
is an entire parish, containing 1050 acres of land; has no church, 
nor anv poor, as the population does not amount to more than 
50), I found considerable improvements going on, under the able 
superintendence of his intelligent bailiff, Mr. Franks. Some 
well arranged and well constructed sheds for fattening beasts 
had just been erected, and about 100 beasts eating oil-cake, &c. 
Mr. Franks grows about 20 or 30 acres of turnips or mangold 
every year ; this he does on the newest or strongest land. With 
these, and the hay grown on the farm, with the addition of about 
200 tons of cake consumed by beasts and sheep, he is improving 
this estate. He does not attempt to winter sheep on this cold 
clay soil ; but in the spring and summer months stocks heavaly 
with sheep, fed with cake ; and in the two years it has been 
under his management he has laid down 260,000 drain-tiles, 
and intends puttuig down half that number this year. He is also 
gradually ploughing the lands down off the high backs, and 
shaping them into lands more convenient for the drill. I saw 
some of his wheat on land lying as tight and as level as on the 
best cultivated heavy clay districts of Suffolk. He farms this on 
the four-course system, and it is the course of cropping generally 
pursued in the whole district. 
I consider that on the poorest portion of it, if instead of grow- 
ing beans they grew tares, and fed them off on the land with 
sheep, eating corn or cake, it would much improve the land ; and, 
in my opinion, by so doing for a term of years, the land would not 
only be improved, but the total proceeds would be increased. 
But the first great improvement to be adopted in this district is 
thorough draining ; and surely the expense can be no excuse for 
not effectually doing it ; this district lying nearly all on the high 
backs, which are lands varying from 7 to 1 5 yards wide, and the 
hollow drain being made up the furrows only, there cannot be 
more than from 4 to 6 score rods of draining per acre to pay for : 
the bushes they fill up with are cut from the hedges ; the haulm 
or stubble to cover up with, left in the field ; so that the expense 
of doing this work cannot be very heavy. 
I believe I am justified in claiming for this county the honour 
of being the first county in England into which irrigation was 
introduced: the history of it is remarkable. Pallavicino, who 
was collector of Peter's Pence in England at the death of Queen 
Mary, having 30,000/. or 40,000/. in his hands, turned Protestant 
on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and appropriated the money 
to his own use, buying with it the estate at Babraham, near 
Bournbridge, and procuring a grant from the crown of the river 
which passes through them, he was enabled to build a sluice 
