Land Wastage in Yorkshire

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3484, 30 August 1937, Page 7

Land Wastage in Yorkshire

A dictionary gives various meanings for the word warp, but to people living along the lower reaches of the Rivers Ouse and Trent in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Great Britain, warp is good soil, the alluvial deposit left by the tide. The Ouse and its tributaries flow through much limestone country, and the waters become impregnated with lime. With these waters come particles of soil, and when they meet the salt waters of the tide from the North Sea a chemical action of the lime and salt and the movements of the water cause the particles of soil to become flocculated, and are deposited on the sides of the rivers as warp.

Most of the soils on the lower reaches of the Ouse and Trent are warp, some made naturally by the rivers overflowing before being banked in and trained by navigation and other authorities. Some have been artificially made by clearing and banking in a section, allowing the tide to cover it, and leave its deposit of warp. A layer of four to six feet turns a bog into valuable land.

Agriculture having been such a long time in a depressed condition, very little warping has been done for many years. There must be hundreds of acres of low-lying land within easy reach of these rivers that could be doubled in value, and employment found for more workers. Warp soil is highly productive, and potatoes grpwn on warp command the best prices. What a chance for any Government to organise this neglected land renovation. At present too many owners with Insufficient capital and no forward policy stay its progress. Organised, the land could be cleared, banked in, and flooded for two or three years. Then a period to grass and clover, to induce nitrate formation, and allow the rains to wash out injurious salts, and we should have virgin soil, needing neither lime nor manure for many years—a new land in old England.