440 



TJic Country Gentleman s Magazine 



There is al)undant evidence to show that we 

 are not safe for a single day, and surely such 

 a condition is not for the interests of the com- 

 munity. 



The following is the paper on The Recent 

 Improvements in Norfolk Farming, read by 

 C. S. Read, M.P., before the recent meeting 

 of the British Association : — 



(lENERAL VIEW OF THE SUliJECT. 



It is quite impossible witliin the limits of a paper to 

 do more than glance at some of the chief improve- 

 ments of Norfolk Agriculture during the last quarter 

 of a century. 



To mention all or go into the details of the greatest 

 changes would occupy the space usually allotted to an 

 agricultural essay. It will therefore be my desire to 

 record only the most marked changes which have 

 recently influenced the farming of Norfolk. In doing 

 so I must advert to many improvements which are 

 common to the kingdom at large. I hope I shall not 

 be accused of a desire to confine the credit of such 

 progression to the county of Norfolk. But the general 

 tenor of these remarks will be to shew that Norfolk 

 farming, which took such a vigorous start, and main- 

 tained such a prominent position during the early part 

 of this century, has not lost ground during the past 

 twenty-five years, though some other counties may 

 have overtaken and perhaps outstripped us in the 

 race. 



In 1804 Arthur Young wrote his voluminous report 

 for the old Board of Agriculture. .Some eight years 

 previously Kent also made a survey ; but these eight 

 years were memorable in the annals of British agricul- 

 ture, for during that period Thomas William Coke 

 commenced his career as a Norfolk farmer. 



The first Lord Townsend had, thirty years before 

 that period, introduced the culture of the turnip into 

 Norfolk, and commenced a better system of agricul- 

 ture. But it was reserved for the great Coke of Holk- 

 ham to mature that system and fully develope the 

 capabilities of our liarren county. And however much 

 it may be the fashion to e.\alt our recent progression, 

 yet all Norfolk men feel that many of their recent im- 

 provements originated ^vith their great patrons, and 

 perfect as may be the superstructure of their agricul- 

 ture now, the chief credit is due to those who pre- 

 pared so solid a foundation for the building. 



Forty years rolled by, and our National Society 

 asked for a report of what had been done since the 

 days of Arthur Voung and Mr Coke. Well was that 

 call responded to. Much -was to be recorded : the 

 progress, the hindrances, the inns and outs, the ups 

 and downs of Norfolk agriculture during that time 

 could not be summed up in a few words. They filled 

 a large octavo volume, and filled it well. .Strange to 

 tell, the man who was the theme of Arthur Young's 



report was still the burden of Bacon's song. A life of 

 active usefulness, which was in its full vigour when 

 Young wrote, just closed in time for Bacon, as it were, 

 to sing its elegy. Gracefully and truthfully was it 

 rendered ; a simple but eloquent record of a great 

 man's deeds. 



Time is comparatively young since the days of the 

 last report, but no similar space of time was ever more 

 momentous to the farming interest. Externally there 

 has been Irish famine, the free importation of corn and 

 cattle, the influx of American and Australian gold and 

 the Russian war, to say nothing of several monetary 

 panics. Internally, agriculture has experienced the 

 potato disease, the new epidemics among cattle, the 

 small-pox of the sheep, the ruinous agricultural prices 

 from 1849 to 1853, the rise and progress of new artifi- 

 cial manures, the greater development of the giant 

 power of steam, the cattle plague visitation, the 

 wretched crops of 1865, 1866, and 1867 ; and lastly, 

 the uprecedented drought of the present year. 



However important the minor accessories, the abo- 

 lition of protective duties on agi-icultural produce must 

 ever be regarded as the great event of this epoch. 

 Different may be the opinions of the fairness and com- 

 pleteness of a measure which repealed the import duty 

 on wheat but retained the malt-tax on barley, yet all 

 will agree that one good was achieved ; it has put the 

 farmer in a much better position with the public and 

 his fellow producers. Regarded as the favourite child 

 of Government, his protective garb of many colours 

 was a source of envy and jealousy to the rest of the 

 community, but he was suddenly exposed to the com- 

 petition of the whole world, deprived of his protective 

 shield, without being relieved of an ounce of that 

 weight of taxation with which in his palmy days he had 

 been saddled. 



It can readily be imagined that a corn-producing 

 coimty like Norfolk would suffer sevei'ely in the early 

 days of Free-trade. It manufactures a large quantity 

 of meat, but it is not from the natural produce of the 

 soil ; it is nearly all raised by artificial means, and the 

 real profit is always looked for in augmented corn 

 crops. The Norfolk farmer had no meat stock, 

 cheese, or butter to dispose of, these have all along 

 kept up their prices pretty well ; all his produce was 

 wonderfully depreciated, and he could not materially 

 lessen the cost of production. His rent was a fixed 

 sum, and the seven years' average made the tithes 

 higher than they had been in higher times. He 

 knew it would not do to buy less manure or keep less 

 stock, and he had not the heart to reduce the labourers' 

 wages to the full extent the prices warranted. With- 

 out claiming any special merit for the farmers of this 

 county, it is no exaggeration to say that they bore 

 their losses with as much patience as any of their 

 brethren, and accommodated themselves to the altered 

 state pf things by rigidly economizing their expenses 

 and applying themselves with more than ordinary 

 assiduity and ability to the cultivation of their farms. 



I must remember that I am not addressing a body 



