Norfolk Farming. 301 



Norfolk, in 1854, at nearly 60,000. Besides these, there were 

 40,000 cows and calves ; but that number included working 

 oxen and young stock. Certainly not above one bullock in twenty 

 that is grazed in Norfolk is bred in the county. These returns 

 were furnished directly after harvest, at which time the Norfolk 

 farmers had not bought their winter stocky icldclt greatly outnumbers 

 the quantity kept in the autumn; and cattle are seldom held more 

 than twelve, and generally less than six months. It is there- 

 fore a moderate calculation to suppose that 50,000 of those cattle 

 are disposed of annually ; and as the oxen are always bought in 

 a lean state and sold out fat, the amount of beef which Norfolk 

 produces must be immense. Tiie quantity of sheep kept in 

 Norfolk is not so great as in some other counties ; though the 

 number wintered every year has been computed to be not less 

 than eight or nine hundred thousand. 



Norwich cattle-market is a weekly fair ; it annually increases 

 in magnitude, to the extinction of almost all the local fairs in the 

 county. Any attempt to obtain information as to the extent and 

 increase of this wonderful mart has failed, as there is no charge 

 for cattle, and consequently no account taken of their number. 

 At Lynn (the second largest market in the county) the tolls are 

 collected by the corporation ; the number of cattle, sheep, &c., 

 exhibited in that town in 1836, 1843, and 1857, shows a rapid 

 increase : — 



There is a considerable increase in the supply of everything 

 save pigs, which confirms the remark that has been made about 

 fewer store-pigs being kept than formerly. 



The amount of poor-rates in Norfolk has been much reduced 

 since the introduction of the new law. Mr. Bacon ffives the 

 amount of poor and county-rates in 1833 at 358,006/. ; last year 

 they were 252,909/,, the average of the past seven years being 

 227,582/. The county levies in 1842 were only 16,200/. ; in 

 1857 they were 27,247/. Of this sum the large portion of 

 15,240/. was raised for the rural police — which is almost as much 

 as the whole rate levied in 1842, the police force having 

 been established two years previous to that date. The assess- 

 ment of the county to the old property-tax was 1,439,977/. ; in 

 1843 the sum was 1,945,558/., and last year it amounted to 

 2,104,198/. 



Sir John Walsham, in 1853, made a valuation of the live and 

 dead farming-stock in the union of Aylsham. South Erpingham 

 hundred does not lay claim to be the best-farmed district in 



