X or folk Farming 



443 



efforts of the husbandman to grow niore barley. If 

 the crop in a rank, green, and rapidly-growing state 

 should be laid flat by a heavy storm of rain, not only 

 is the yield considerably reduced, but the quality of 

 the grain is so seriously injured as to be totally unfit 

 for malting purposes, and the next year's seeds are 

 <lestroyed. Many years ago the yield of barley ap- 

 peared to have reached its maximum in Norfolk. 

 Sheep, eating a large quantity of cake and corn, con- 

 sumed chief part of the turnips upon the land, and as 

 much straw as could stand, and sometimes rather more, 

 was produced in favourable years. But on the heavy 

 lands, and indeed on all soils, the practice of sowing 

 barley much earlier than formerly has helped to stiffen 

 the straw and improve the sample. A vast extent of 

 barley on the clay soils, and on other medium and 

 well-farmed lands, is now planted, when practicable, 

 in February, and by this means far better samples of 

 grain are produced, and land that was considered 

 naturally unkind for barley, will in dry seasons make 

 this produce the largest crops of the best barley. Al- 

 though a considerable amount of \\heat is grown after 

 mangold wurtzel and early turnips, yet the extent of 

 barley is more than compensated by the gradually 

 increasing acreage of this grain that is sown upon 

 wheat stubbles. 



I have this year, with a dressing of i cwt. of guano 

 and 2 cwt. of superphosphate, grown on a wheat stubble 

 that had been dug 12 inches deep with the steanr cul- 

 tivator in the autumn, the best crop of barley I ever 

 produced, the land being now perfectly clean, and in 

 the best possible condition for next year's root crop. 

 And I see no reason why this extra white straw crop 

 need frighten any land agent, provided always the 

 farms is in a high state of cultivation. 



Oats are but little grown, the quantity remaining 

 about the same. The extent of beans and peas varies 

 much with the season. When the small seeds have all 

 perished, as is the case this year, a much larger growth 

 of pulse next spring may be expected in Norfolk. 

 Rye, that was once the staple grain product of our 

 county, is now grown only on the hottest gravels 

 and the lightest sands. Wherever the land can by 

 any possibility grow ^\•heat, that grain is now substi- 

 tuted for rye. 



The total acreage of the root crop has not at all in- 

 creased, but a much smaller breadth of white turnips 

 and a corresponding larger extent of mangolds and 

 swedes is grown. The increase of weight per acre is 

 supposed to be twenty per cent., but this is obtained 

 at a vast outlay of artificial manures. Some good far- 

 mers reserve the whole of the farm-yard manure for 

 the wheat, growing their r-oots exclusively by artificial 

 means, the dressing costing from 30s. to ^,{^3 and;^4, 

 per acre. The Northumberland or ridge system is still 

 the favourite way of growing roots in Norfolk, but in 

 our arid climate a return to the old flat work may pos- 

 sibly be desirable. 



Hay is certainly a poorer crop in Norfolk than 

 formerly ; this arises chiefly from the failure of the 



red clover, but the extended cultivation of the sainfoin 

 on all lands that have a calcareous subsoil makes some 

 amends for the loss of the clover. 



In some districts the system of cropping has been 

 materially altered, but in the great majority of farms 

 the old Norfolk four-course rotation is rigidly adhered 

 to. Where the five and six course prevailed twenty- 

 five years age there the greatest alteration has taken 

 place, but on the Holkham estate, that home of the 

 four course, an extra corn crop after the wheat is some- 

 what general. I might mention two or three farms 

 that at the time of j\Ir Bacon's report, were cultivated 

 on the five course, two years being in grass, which 

 are now altered to one year's grass, and follo\\'ed by 

 two consecutive com crops. The produce per acre of 

 these farms appears to be quite as abundant as ever; 

 but the expenditure in artificial food and manure has 

 increased fourfold. It does seem unreasonable, with 

 all the advantages of modern science, that the famier 

 should be tied do^\•n to the same covenants as were 

 supposed to be necessary, and certainly were useful, at 

 the end of the last centuiy. 



Already the constant repetition of the same crop is 

 acting prejudicially to the Norfolk farmer. Clover 

 sickness is a common complaint, and no chemist can 

 tell us what it is that the clover extracts from the land 

 \\'hich our manures do not return to it ; nor have they 

 suggested any treatment which has in the slightest 

 degree mitigated the evil. It is feared that turnips 

 are shewing signs of a similar ailment ; anyho\\-, it is 

 certain that the same dressing of manure fails to pro- 

 duce the same weight of roots as it did twenty-five 

 years ago. 



This opens up the whole question of artificial 

 manures. The use of these fertilizers may be still in 

 their infancy, but they have enormously increased of 

 late years. Superphosphates were almost unknown 

 at the time of the last report ; bones, rape-cake, and 

 the newly introduced guano, being almost the only 

 artificial manures used. These are still the most re- 

 liable of our accessory manures ; but supei-phosphate 

 is now generally employed for the production of roots. 

 The discovery of coprolites has supplied an immense 

 quantity of new raw material for the manufacturer of 

 phosphatic manures. Although some samples may Ije 

 well and scientifically prepared, I fear the ignorance 

 or selfishness of many manufacturers causes them to 

 vend a very inferior article. No one can estimate the 

 alarming extent to which farmers are victimii^ed in this 

 respect. 



I have had two samples of superphosphate made by 

 two different firms, both of good local reputation, 

 analysed, and the chemical report assured me that 

 the manure for \vhich I paid six pounds was not 

 worth three pounds ten per ton. I have also lately 

 seen an analysis of some cheap guano sold at seven 

 to ten pounds per ton which \\-as pronounced dear at 

 thirty shillings. It is not till farmers will all pur- 

 chase their manures by analysis, that any general im- 

 provement in these auxiliary fertilizers can be hoped for. 



