JOURNAL 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 

 OF ENGLAND. 



I. — On the Improvements which have take?i place in West Norfolk. 

 By the Right Hon. Earl Spencer. 



Every one connected with agriculture in this country^ and pro- 

 bably in Europe and America, has heard of the improvements in 

 the agriculture of West Norfolk, brought about by the exertions, 

 liberality, and example of the Earl of Leicester. It is known 

 that it is his boast, as it well may be, that he has converted West 

 Norfolk from a rye-growing to a wheat-growing district. That 

 this statement is well-founded, is proved by the fact that the small 

 ports of Blakeney, Cley, Wells, Burnham, and Brancaster, which, 

 when Lord Leicester came into possession of his estate, and for 

 many years afterwards, constantly imported a large quantity of 

 wheat, have become exporting ports, and that now for many years 

 a great deal more wheat has been exported from them than has 

 been imported into them, and this has occurred notwithstanding 

 the great increase of population which has taken place, and con- 

 sequently the great increase in the consumption of wheat which 

 must have occurred in the district, which those ports used for- 

 merly to supply. 



These are striking facts : they cannot be denied, nor can they 

 be accounted for in any way but by the improvement in the culti- 

 vation of the soil M^hich has taken place. They are not only in- 

 teresting to those who are practically engaged in agricultural 

 pursuits, but they are also interesting to the philosopher, because 

 they prove, that, although the general principle must be admitted 

 to be true, that population will press upon the means of subsist- 

 ence, yet to a certain point at least the skill and industry of man 

 may counteract this tendency, and supply a greatly increased 

 population, not only with the same, but with a much better de- 

 scription of food from the same district. 



VOL. III. B 



