Norfolk Farming. 277 



turnips and late barley do not suit this country, nor do high 

 farming and a breeding flock very often agree, consequently 

 more sheep are grazed and. fewer bred than formerly. The 

 fattening of sheep has been long and well practised in West 

 Norfolk. Gardiner's turnip-cutter is still almost the only one 

 used. The roots thus sliced are given in open troughs, while 

 in the covered ones oilcake and hay-chaff are supplied; but 

 little corn is given to sheep. The labour of this mode of 

 feeding is not very expensive ; two lads, or a man and a boy, 

 will attend to ten or fifteen score ; that is, they will trim and 

 heap the turnips, set the fold, and feed the sheep : the usual cost 

 is considered to be about 1^. per score per week. Seldom more 

 than one-third, frequently not so much, of the turnip crop is 

 removed from the field for the bullocks : the rest of the roots 

 being left for the sheep, are placed in rows and partially covered 

 with mould. A great number of extraordinarily good hoggets, 

 or yearling sheep, are turned out from this district in March and 

 April. One advantage of this system is that the flock-master 

 finds it his interest to give a little oilcake to his lambs, which 

 not only improves their condition, but also increases the pro- 

 duce of his poor farm. The lambs so treated in their infancy 

 receive a liberal allowance of cake when they are fed on the 

 seeds in their new home, so that when they go to turnips early 

 in the autumn they are in famous order and better able to stand 

 high feeding during the winter months. 



Another noticeable alteration has taken place in the ploughing 

 on some farms of West Norfolk ; it is by no means general, yet 

 is rather extensively adopted when ploughing ley ground for 

 wheat where the lands are perfectly dry. The field instead of 

 being cut out into ridges is ploughed round. On the previous 

 day one plough goes and turns off the corners ; then a number 

 follow each other round and round the field, and there is but one 

 furrow in the middle of the enclosure ; by this means a great 

 amount of ground is ploughed in a day, no time is lost in turning, 

 and there are no furrows to interfere with the drill, the horsehoe, 

 or the operations of harvest. When the field is again ploughed, 

 of course it is commenced in the middle, the ploughs making 

 the only furrow into a top, and finishing off by the fences. 

 There is another peculiarity on some few occupations in this 

 district, which is that scarifiers have almost superseded ploughs. 

 On some farms of great extent Coleman's cultivators are used 

 entirely lor cleaning fallows, and no plough comes into the field 

 till the one with double mouldboards ridges up the land for the 

 manure. 



The most prominent features of the several districts have now 

 been touched on : it remains to sflance at those changes and 



