112 



The Country GoitlcDian's Jllagaziiie 



of the season ; and the solid droppings should 

 be carefully spread in rainy weather. In 

 this way the grass grows better, and the cattle 

 thrive better. It is impossible but that they 



should, being regularly changed to '' fresh 

 fields and pastures new," which is cheaply- 

 bought at the cost of a run or two of wire 

 fencinsf. 



FARMING IN SUFFOLK. 



By Mr R. L. Everett." 



N his "Fifty Points of Agriculture," written 

 during the reign of Henry VIII., Thomas 

 Tusser represented Suffolk as one of the best 

 cultivated parts of England. At that time 

 the greater part of the county was unen- 

 closed, and Tusser was an advocate for en- 

 closures. He spoke of the damage done to 

 crops by cattle going to fairs. In his day an 

 abundance of cattle were reared in the county, 

 and in that' respect Suftblk had undergone a 

 great change ; but in respect to the large 

 number of hoggs then produced by Suffolk, 

 there had not been mucli change, except in 

 the qualit}^, which was much improved. In 

 those days two of the principal products of 

 Suffolk were cheese and butter, which were 

 largely exported to the Continent. Then the 

 cheese was highly esteemed, but now it was 

 supposed to be as hard as a millstone, and 

 likely to turn the edge of the axe or knife 

 with which it might be cut. Tusser also 

 spoke of the cultivation of hemp, and said 

 that almost every farmer grew a small por- 

 tion, which was woven by the women for 

 domestic uses. In the discontinuance of 

 that practice, the county had lost one of the 

 most valuable employments their ancestors 

 had. One evil the agricultural population 

 suffered from in the present day, Aras the 

 want of something to do when the day's 

 work was over. Another writer on Suffolk 

 agriculture, and much more famous in his 

 day than Tusser, was Arthur Young, who 

 wrote about a century since. According to 

 Young, a better system of agriculture was 

 practised in Suftblk than in any other part of 



Read before the Maidstone Farmers' Club. 



Great Britain. The ploughing was then done- 

 witii two horses, and the practice was to 

 make long fallows — much longer than it 

 would be possible to make now — and farm 

 successfully. Swedes were just then being 

 introduced by some of the more advanced 

 farmers : but what a change had come over 

 the scene since those days ! The rents of 

 the present day were about double what they 

 were when Young wrote. All the intelligent 

 farmers were making great havoc with their 

 hedges (where they were permitted to do so), 

 believing that the larger their fields, if fenced 

 oft' from the roads, the more likely were they 

 to secure remunerative crops. The stock to 

 be seen in the county to-day was very much 

 improved ; swedes, beetroot, and turnips — 

 rarities in the days of Young — were now to 

 be seen in abundance ; while mustard, tre- 

 folium, and other plants, contributed largely 

 to the prosperity of the agriculturists of the 

 present day. Improved machinery, wtw 

 manures, and draining — much more largely 

 practised now than formerly — had also helped 

 to produce the most satisfactory results. 



REARING SUFFOLK HORSES. 



As to the famous Suffolk horse used for 

 agricultural purposes, its history was involved 

 in obscurity ; but the earliest records shewed 

 that an independent breed existed in tht- 

 county, and that the Suffolk horse was always 

 famous for the same characteristics and points 

 it possesses to-day, though improved in sha])e 

 and colour. One old writer had described 

 the animal as " half horse and half hog,'" 

 which, in a jocular sense, was not a bad de- 

 scription of the compact, thick-set shape, 



