502 
Typical Farms in East Anglia. 
The cattle were mostly young steers and heifers, feeding, hut thirty-foul* 
cows are kept for dairy purposes. 
A large number of calves are bought at an average cost of about 40s. 
each. 
These are fed on new milk for ten days and afterwards gradually turned 
on to separated milk and meal. The cream is made into butter twice a 
week, to be sold at an average price of Is. per pound. Owingto the difficulty 
of keeping the yards clean, through scarcity of straw this year, the cows 
were driven into temporarily erected folds in the fields to be milked. These 
were moved from time to time so as to insure cleanliness and comfort. 
The sheep are Oxford Downs and are quite a superior lot. A number 
of the lambs are “ rickety.” As many as forty are more or less affected this 
year. The lambs are reared in the ordinary way and sold fat as shearlings 
after clipping. 
At the time of my visit all the crops were large and so full of blade as 
to look too big to stand ; and the heavy rains following soon after must 
have caused great loss and waste. 
The nature of the soil encourages a great growth of soft straw, and in 
ordinary seasons much waste must take place in the large open bullock yards. 
In fact, round many of the farm buildings in the Fen Country straw seems 
to answer the purpose of road-making during the winter months, to be 
gathered up in early summer and carted into heaps in the fields as manure. 
Owing to the widespread drought of last year there was a great demand for 
straw, and Fen farmers made a good price of all they could spare. This, 
however, was quite an exceptional case, and, generally speaking, straw has 
to be destroyed and turned into what is called dung in every way possible. 
Any arrangement with the railway companies which would lower the rate 
for carriage of straw to the great consuming centres would be of immense 
benefit to this straw-producing district. 
On such an extensive holding as that which Mr. Daintree farms there is 
a large annual outlay in dyke-cleaning, as these dykes intersect the whole 
of the arable land at frequent intervals. These channels are scorned every 
four or five years at a cost of Is. Gd. to 3s. a chain. No statement was made 
of the gross annual expense of this work, but it must be a considerable amount, 
as the water-courses are all kept in good condition. 
A statement was made by Mr. Daintree to the effect that, speaking gene- 
rally, rents had been lowered about 50 per cent, in the Fen Country of late 
years. 
2. The Farm of Me. H. J. Maktijt, Littleport, Cambridgeshire. 
This farm, belonging to the Rev. H. J. Martin, about four feet above sea 
level, is entirely of fen soil, a black peaty surface resting on clay. The annual 
rainfall is given as twenty-four inches. 
To anyone from the North, or in fact from almost any part of England, 
the situation and surroundings of such a farm are most striking. An entirely 
level tract of land intersected with large main water-courses, and again sub- 
divided by small water-courses or dykes, as they are locally called, however 
good and valuable it may be as agricultural land, seems uninteresting and 
depressing to a stranger. 1 The drainage throughout the whole extent of 
1 The late Sir Andrew Ramsay, Director-General of the Geological 
Survey, penned ( Phys. Geol. Gt. Britain ) the following graphic picture of this 
flat, undiversified country : — 
“ The great plain of the Wash consists partly of peat on the west and 
south, but chiefly of silt. Those broad flats, about seventy miles in length 
from north to south, and forty in width, include an area of more than 1700 
