Norfolk Farming. 275. 



manure that could be made on the farm was needed for turnips ; 

 now a great breadth of roots is grown with artificials, leaving a 

 large portion of the farm manure to be applied for wheat. It 

 is placed on the ley-grovmd directly the hay is off or before 

 the land is ploughed for wheat in the autumn. The flag is 

 firmly consolidated by wheel-pressers, drill-rollers, or the like 

 implements, and the wheat is invariably drilled across the furrow. 

 In the spring it is a common practice to top-dress the wheat 

 with nitrate of soda and salt ; and as this custom has become 

 general, it is a proof that it is successful. An account of ex- 

 periments, which have been conducted for many years with great 

 care and skill on the Holkham Park Farm, will be found at the 

 end of this paper, and the aggregate result of such a long and 

 varied trial cannot be otherwise than important. Suffice it to 

 say, that nitrate of soda is greatly preferred as a top-dressing to 

 guano, for, while one takes no sort of harm from the cold dry 

 winds, the other loses much of its virtue when so exposed. 



Another striking feature is the great extent of wheat which 

 is now grown. A few years ago hardly any was sown after 

 a root-crop, but it is now almost universal to plant v/heat after 

 mangolds, and to sow a large portion of the turnip-land with it 

 as well. The reasons for this change are — that wheat will bear 

 high farming better than barley, is not so liable to be affected 

 by unpropitious seasons, and on some soils will produce as 

 much per acre. There is also another advantage — that the 

 clovers, trefoils, and sainfoins, but especially the latter, grow 

 much better with wheat than with barley. The wheat seldom 

 lodges, its straw is stifFer, grows more upright, and readily admits 

 the air. Having been planted some time before the seeds are 

 sown, there is a firm seed-bed, with enough fine mould to cover 

 them, without burying them too deeply, as is frequently the 

 case when sown on well-pulverized barley land. 



One great and increasing agricultural evil in W est Norfolk, 

 and, indeed, all over the county, is the clover sickness. In the 

 four-course system it was common to sow clover once in eight 

 years, and trefoil, white clover, rye-grass, &c., when the land came 

 round for seeds next time. Now it is found that the clover 

 plant fails, and cannot be relied on even once in eight years. It 

 is not the country for growing beans or even peas, but in lieu of 

 repeating the clover so frequently sainfoin is grown instead. The 

 quantity of sainfoin seems annually on the increase. In 1843 

 this plant was confined to the light sheep districts, and was not 

 then grown in rotation, but ^a iew spots were planted with it 

 and kept down as long as it would pay. Now the sainfoin ley 

 is taken up at Michaelmas for wheat just as clover would be, 

 and it is a capital preparation for that grain, better even than 



