^66 R^irofpecih'e v'leiD of Agnciiliure — NorfoIL 



us view the other obje6l of Britifli emuLition, Agriculture^ an -3 w© 

 ihall find (to continue the allufion,) that, like the man of Rols, it has 

 but one chara6ler, never had, and never can make a finale enemy. 

 Viewed in every afpecl:, and through every medium, AgricuUure ap- 

 pears fair and lovely, uniting all the excellencies of the other two, and 

 reje6ling all their dcfe^^s ; it is worthy of univerfal encouragement, 

 The employments ihe furnifhes are the hand-maids to health, com- 

 petence, purity of heart, and cheerfulnefs of countenance. Her 

 children are the children of nature, and though much of that 

 •fimplicity, which once characflerifcd the iliepherd with the reed and 

 kis flock, has long fince difappeared, yet ftill the huibandman is, com- 

 paratively at lealt, the child of innocence. Surely no man, who exerts 

 even the flighteft degree of obfervation, can behold the various oper- 

 ations of nature through the dilTerent feafons of the year, in the field 

 he cultivates, without finding J\imf:-lf improved by his refle(9:ions, nor 

 without looking up * through Natures work to Natures God.' — But 

 I muft apply the check rein in time to my hobby, or having got into 

 this plealiag level path of panegyrick, he will carry me far from the 

 view and recoUeclion of what was my principal intention when I firft 

 took up my pen, viz. to give you a flight Ikctch of the prefent ftate 

 of AgricuUure in the wellcrn diftricl of the county of Norfolk. 



I am happy to obferve, that not one atom of the fpirit of agricul- 

 ture feenis yet to have evaporated, though it certainly ftruggles at pre- 

 lent under very heavy prefiures. The principal caules of complaint 

 are, the late additional duties upon malt, and ibme of the old corn 

 laws, which refpcdls the exports and imports, and againft the former 

 of which a very ftrong petition is preparing, to be prefented in the pre- 

 lent feflion of Parliament from this county. 1 will give you the rou- 

 tine of crops, and you will then judge whether there does not appear 

 a happy union of fpirit and judgment in. the praclice. 



The land is generally luiVered to lie two years in grafs ; in the firft 

 year a fmali portion n cut for hay, and the remainder of it the firft, 

 und the whole of it the 2d year, is fed principally with iheep. After 

 harveft lO or 12 loads per acre of good rotten dung, or ^ ton ot oil 

 cake (the latter at an expence of at leait4l. per acre), is laid on, and 

 as foon as the weather will permit, it is then broken up and fown 

 ■with wheat. The following year, the wheat ftubble is fown with 

 turnips, which are fed oil principally by iheep ; the flubble having 

 been lirft again enriched either with dung or oil cake, avoiding a re- 

 petition of the fame manure. Barley with grals feeds lucceeds, and 

 the land again obtains a reft of two years. By this mode of culture, 

 heavy crops are produced ; tliough the foil is by no means naturally 

 fertile, yet it amply rewards the cultivators for labour and expence be- 

 ilowed. — To aver that agriculture had reached in this couiUiy its acme 

 of perfeclion, would certainly be aiferting too much; but fince, in ad- 

 dition to this almoft unlimited expenditure, the drill iyftem, which 

 allows a liberal ufe of the horfe and hoe, is introduced, and pretty ge- 

 nerally pra6f ifed, approaching very near the neatnels of garden culture, 

 it will not be perhaps too much to affirm, that it is making rapid 

 ftrides in improvement ; yet, as experienced chyraift;^ may ftill farther n> 



veftigati 



