beyond the river banks, much of the fertile arable land is composed of marine silt, which suits the bulb-growing for which spalding is famous. the commercial growing of bulbs was pioneered in the 1880s, with the first large-scale tulip fields introduced by sam culpin in 1907. at its peak in 1939, there were of bulb fields, and 3000 tons of flowers were exported through spalding railway station. tulips were grown on around in 1965, but this had reduced to less than by 1999.