4 On the Improvements in West Norfolk. 



Norfolk sheep, there were no cattle. Lord Leicester made no 

 change in the sort of sheep, and adopted Mr. Bakewell's Leicester 

 breed of long-horned cattle. This, indeed, was the only breed of 

 cattle to the improvement of which at that time any attention had 

 been paid, and a young man applying himself to improved agri- 

 culture would naturally have been led to select them. When, 

 some time afterwards, he found that the Norfolk sheep were a 

 very unprofitable sort, the same reasons induced him to try the 

 new Leicester breed, a variety of sheep probably as ill calculated 

 to succeed on such a soil as the one he occupied as any breed 

 which he could have selected. He at last found that the best 

 sort of sheep he could adopt were the South-downs. In this, 

 however, as in every other of his farming experiments, Lord 

 Leicester acted with great caution, and did not make the changes 

 which he did make till thoroughly convinced by practical expe- 

 rience that they v/ould answer. Accordingly, for several years 

 he had upon his farm at the same time Norfolk sheep, new 

 Leicesters, and South- downs: he also tried the Merinos, but he 

 did not persevere long with them. I find that so late as the 

 sheep-shearing of 1812 there were still at Holkham both Norfolk 

 and Leicester sheep. Since that time South-downs have been 

 the only sort which he has kept. 



With respect to cattle he persevered with the Leicester long- 

 horned breed for many years ; but somewhere towards the close 

 of the last century, Francis Duke of Bedford, with whom he lived 

 on terms of the greatest intimacy, being aware that he was inclined 

 to try the Devonshire cattle, in consequence of the success of a 

 small experiment which he had made in feeding some Devonshire 

 oxen bought from Lord Somervilie, bought at the late Lord 

 Ossory's sale a Devonshire bull and some heifers without having 

 had any commission from Lord Leicester, and sent them to 

 Holkham. Upon trial this breed proved to be by far the best 

 breed that could be adopted in such a soil as that of Holkham. 

 Lord Leicester, therefore, gradually replaced the long-horned by 

 increasing his stock of Devonshire cows, but, as in the case of the 

 sheep, some of the long -horned cattle were still to be seen at 

 Holkham as late as 181 '2 : from that time the only catde which 

 he has bred have been Devons, and the only sheep South-downs. 

 These latter, however, he has of late years crossed with the 

 Hampshire Down sheep, and he considers that this cross has 

 been very successful, by givdng greater strength to the constitution 

 of the sheep, by increasing the value of the wool, and by giving a 

 larger proportion of lean meat in the carcasses. 



It is not, however, to cattle and sheep only that Lord Leicester 

 has turned his attention : a large portion of the manure produced 

 upon his farm is owing to the number of pigs which he kept. 



