612 
WARPING 
district ; and among their numerous works, they 
widened the river Dunn, and turned its course 
into a new and artificial channel which enters the 
Ouse at Goole, and is now called the Dutch river. 
Some tracts also, which naturally lay higher 
than the level of high-water, have become availa- 
ble for warping by means of subsidence conse- 
quent on draining. Of this kind is a peat-moss 
of about 10,000 acres, called Thorne Waste, 
situated about two miles from the banks of the 
Ouse, with a bottom of sand, a basal stratum of 
prostrate forest, a general body of very spongy 
peat, and a maximum depth near the centre of 
about 18 feet. In bygone days, when the rivers 
were not contained within their present banks, 
they must have had a natural flow up to the 
margin of this peat-moss, which at that period 
must have been above the level of the tide at 
high water; but years and ages passing by, and 
drains having been cut through the cultivable 
land, a considerable tract of this peat-moss be- 
came in a certain way drained, and of a much 
lower level than it originally was, and conse- 
quently proved capable of being covered by the 
tide-water from the river Ouse. 
The practice of warping was first tried about 
the year 1743, by Mr. Richard Jennings of Armin 
near Howden; and was not tried by any other 
person till about ten years after; and remained 
in obscurity till enquiries, consequent upon the 
institution of the Board of Agriculture, in the 
winter of 1793. It was long done on a very li- 
mited scale, the sluices or cloughs then used 
being merely what now would be called shuttles ; 
and the deposit at first was very small, from 
want of power consequent on the smallness of 
the works. Gradually, however, the benefit be- 
came more generally known, and the works were 
made larger. In 1821, Ralph Creyke, Esq. en- 
tered into an agreement with certain proprietors 
of land in the townships of Goole, Swinefleet, 
and Reedness, for the purpose of warping their 
land; an act of parliament was obtained; and 
he commenced excavating a large main drain to 
convey the tide-water from the river Ouse, 
through the old cultivated land to the barren 
and uncultivated morass about to be improved. 
The sluice or clough was built of stone, with two 
openings of 16 feet each in width, and 19 feet in 
height from the sole to the crown of the arch, 
with four substantial doors, made when shut to 
oppose the entrance of the tide, yet with power 
at will to keep them open for the admission of 
the tide during the time of warping, by means of 
strong staples and iron rods fixed in the stone- 
work. The main drain was very large, it having 
been proved by continued observation and cal- 
culation, that the area of a warping-drain ought 
to be three times that of the sluice, to prevent 
as much as possible any considerable resistance 
to the flow of the water; its dimensions were 30 
feet wide at the bottom, 90 feet wide at the sur- 
face of the land, and 114 deep; the banks were 
OF LAND. 
placed 9 feet from the edge of the main drain, 
the base of each bank was 60 feet wide, and they 
were 10 feet high; this main drain extended 
originally for near 3 miles, and cost, with the 
purchase of land and erection of sluice, about 
£18,000. This main drain and its extension 
have for some time been used as a canal for ves- 
sels of about 75 or 80 tons burthen, and are found 
very convenient for the purpose of conveying one 
of the chief productions of the warp-land, namely, 
potatoes, to the London market, where they 
command a high price under the name of Yo k- 
shire Reds. 
In commencing the warping of any plot of 
land, it is first enclosed with banks, the size of 
which varies according to the extent and the 
level of the land. The general batten or slope of 
the banks is from 15 to 18 inches on each side 
for every 12 inches’ perpendicular rise ; and they 
are left from 2 to 3 feet wide at the top; and 
particular care must be taken in erecting them 
to procure the proper levels. The main drain 
being cut up to the newly-embanked compart- 
ment, the tide is suffered to flow in. At first it 
is very advisable only to take rather small tides 
in, beginning to admit the water before they are 
at their height, and allowing them to increase 
by small degrees; for the banks being generally 
made of very porous materials—that is, peat- 
moss and bad sand—they are subject to leak very 
much, and in some instances considerable damage 
has been done by a breakage of the bank. In 
case of a bank being rather exposed to the action 
of the wind, which is one of the greatest enemies 
that a warper can have to contend with, it is 
generally what is called ‘puddled;’ that is, a 
trench from 2 to 3 feet wide is cut longitudinally 
through the centre of the bank into the foun- 
dation, the material is chopped up and mixed 
with water, which being pressed down and beat 
by repeated treading, becomes a solid mass. The 
water is allowed to flow over the land during the 
spring-tides. The reason why the spring-tides 
only are generally made use of is, that the neap- 
tides are much smaller in body of water, and 
although they might in certain instances be of 
sufficient height to flow the land, yet as one of 
the greatest difficulties in warping is to keep the 
main drains in order by preventing the warp 
from being deposited in them, and as that is 
chiefly done by the return of the water from the 
compartment under the process, which in spring- 
tides being a larger body of water, scours out the 
drains, in neap-tides there would not be sufficient 
flow, and they would be warped up. 
The water conducted by the main drain into 
the embanked allotment is more or less divided 
into smaller ones, called ‘inlets’ (which vary 
much in size), and conducted to different parts 
of the compartment; for wherever the current, 
leaving a drain, expands itself, there the greatest 
quantity of warp is deposited. As soon then as 
the plots of land next the mouth of the inlets 
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