296 Norfolk Farming. 



facturing good manure, the presence of a little rain-water in 

 the yard is considered no detriment ; it enables the cattle to 

 tread down more straw in less time, and, although the manure is 

 not so ^concentrated as that from loose boxes, it is made at less 

 expense. On the other hand, where landlords provide boxes, 

 tenants are only too glad to avail themselves of the change. 

 There can be no doubt that cattle do best in them and make the 

 richest manure, but the first outlay entails a heavy expense on 

 the proprietor. In boxes, cattle eat less than in yards ; they are 

 always dry and warm, they can move about when they like, and 

 lie in any position they please ; and if the litter be well managed 

 — that from the corners being moved into the middle and the 

 straw kept level — no escape of gas can be detected by the most 

 sensitive olfactory nerve. 



Norfolk owes much of its good farming to the judicious appli- 

 cation of its substrata to the surface-soil. In olden times it 

 was considered essential to clay, marl, or chalk lands at certain 

 intervals ; but these dressings are much less needed now,* as 

 cheaper substitutes are found for many of the most valuable 

 fertilising properties of these mineral manures. Thus salt is 

 supposed to stiffen the straw as well as chalk, and there can be 

 no doubt that superphosphate produces some of those results 

 which constituted the chief value of a dressing of marl. Of 

 course, where lands require to be consolidated, such as peat and 

 light sands, nothing can be applied which will be of so much 

 service as a good coat of heavy clay ; this acts mechanically 

 and solidifies the soil, but, if only chemical result is wanted, 

 that result is often obtained in a quicker and cheaper form from 

 some artificial fertiliser. Hence claying and marling friable 

 loams is not so general as formerly, and the indiscriminate 

 application of mineral manures to all soils is quite going out of 

 fashion. 



Fifteen years ago there was no railway communication between 

 Norfolk and London. Cattle and sheep for the Sinithfield Monday 

 market had to leave their homes on the previous Wednesday or 

 Tlmrsday week. Such a long drift, particularly in hot weather, 

 caused a great waste of meat. The heavy stall-fed cattle of East 

 Norfolk suffered severely. The average loss on such bullocks 

 was considered to be 4 stones of 14 lbs., while the best yearling 

 sheep are proved to have lost G lbs. of mutton and 4 of tallow ; but 

 beasts from the open yards and old sheep, with carelul drovers, 



* Probably one of the principal reasons for claying or marling not being so much 

 needed as formerly, is the improvement produced in the composition and staple 

 of the soil by the successive dressings already applied. — H. S. T. 



