Norfolk Fanning 



439 



was discussed by the Central Club — namely, 

 to take two cereal crops in succession after 

 the manured and fed-off root crop ; and 

 when barley is put as the second of these 

 crops, the result is a superior yield in respect 

 both of quantity and quality. Again, when 

 the land becomes clover-sick, vetches and 

 other varieties of forage crops are introduced 

 so as to lengthen the intervals between the 

 periods when clover is grown, which tends 

 materially to prevent loss from such sickness. 

 Turnips are also shewing signs of a similar 

 ailment, arising from too frequent repetition, 

 and as Mr Read points out, as observed in Nor- 

 folk, " the same dressing of manure fails to 

 produce the same weight of roots as 

 it did twenty-five years ago." The sub- 

 stitution of mangolds for turnips — not 

 for the purpose of setting turnips aside 

 altogether, but in order to render that crop 

 less frequently repeated — has been of great 

 service ; but there are districts where the 

 climate does not suit the cultivation of 

 mangolds, and yet where the turnips are 

 feeling the effects of too frequent repeti- 

 tion, and in such cases the deterioration 

 experiencd in the crop becomes of even 

 greater importance than it possesses when 

 circumstances favour the substitution for it 

 of another valuable root crop. A\'e attach 

 much weight, from our own experience of 

 the results, to deeper cultivation of the 

 soil than had been formerly the rule 

 in such cases. At the same time, it is 

 very desirable that agricultural chemists 

 should devote a large share of their atten- 

 tion to the best means of guarding against 

 such deterioration, and also in order to dis- 

 cover some mode of stiffening the straw of 

 growing crops on land in high condition- 

 The application of salt to the land, we know, 

 has, in general, the effect of rendering the 

 straw much less liable to lodge, but it is not 

 equally efficacious in all circumstances, and 

 it may be possible, as IMr Read suggests, 

 that some chemical manure — soluble silica, 

 for instance — may be discovered, or made 

 specially useful for this purpose. 



Xot the least important part of Mr Read's 



paper is the concluding, or what he calls " the 

 somewhat speculative portion," with which he 

 wound up his remarks. This refers to " the 

 chief hindrances to the progress of Norfolk 

 agriculture," and he sums up " the almost 

 unanimous reply" of the numerous corre- 

 sjDondents to whom he had applied for in- 

 formation, under four heads: — " Insecurity of 

 tenant's capital; the Malt-tax ; over-preserva- 

 tion of ground game \ and the increase of 

 diseases among our stock." Those " hind- 

 rances to the progress of agriculture" are not, 

 however, peculiar to Norfolk, but are felt 

 more or less in nearly all parts of the United 

 Kingdom. It is worthy of remark with re- 

 ference •• to the vexed question of game," 

 that none of his correspondents " complain 

 of the Game-laws, and none of Avinged 

 game. It is all one and the same cry, " the 

 over-preservation of ground game," or hares 

 and rabbits. In this complaint others will 

 unite with Mr Read's correspondents, but if, 

 says he, " a farmer with his eyes open likes 

 to hire a cheaply rented game farm, I don't 

 suppose, however much we may pity his want 

 of sense, or grieve over circumstances which 

 may have forced him to this refuge of the 

 destitute, or greatly as some may deprecate 

 the questionable use the owner makes of his 

 land, that there is much for farmers or the 

 public to complain of." There is surely great 

 justice in these remarks, but it is not unfre- 

 quent to find "a farmer with his eyes open" 

 taking a farm of the kind described, and then 

 coming forward to claim public sympathy on 

 account of the loss to which he is thereby 

 subjected. 



That " healthy stock means, in ordinary 

 seasons, cheap meat," is the sum and sub- 

 stance of Mr Read's remarks on the last-men- 

 tioned " hindrance to agricultural progress" — -. 

 namely, "the increase of diseases among our 

 stock," a fact, which, although self-evident, does 

 not appear to have been understood by the 

 factious andobstructivepartywho succeeded in 

 throwing out the Metropolitan Foreign Cattle 

 Market Bill last session of ParHament. It is 

 to be hoped, however, that ere long justice 

 will be done to the public in the matter. 



