A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Tares are used for horse fodder, and if grown on heavy land and folded 

 with sheep in the summer they make an excellent preparation for barley. 

 Rye drilled immediately after the wheat is carted with a single ploughing 

 gives a fortnight's feed for the ewe and lamb directly the turnips are done ; 

 but it soon gets out of hand, and should always be off before the ear 

 comes out. 



Nothing gives such a healthy hue on wool as a nightly fold on the 

 coleworts. Lambs thrive immensely on this green colza ; but it is subject 

 to rust and mildew in a dry August. It comes before the earliest turnips 

 are fit to feed. 



The cultivation of hops has entirely ceased in Suffolk. Forty years ago 

 there were a few acres grown three miles east of Ipswich, The spot was after- 

 wards marked by a public-house, existing a few years ago and probably there 

 still, called the ' Hop Ground.' Between Stowmarket and Haughley there 

 were several acres in the bed of the valley, but osier beds have taken their 

 place, or rough grass on the drier spots. 



In the early fifties some flax was grown in Suffolk, but as labour became 

 more difficult to obtain the cultivation was given up. The time of securing 

 it encroached on the harvest weeks ; and as it had to be pulled by hand, and 

 no reaper or horse-rake could be used for the ingathering, the few who tried 

 it became less, and it is not now ranked as an item in the list of Suffolk crops. 



Potato culture has very much increased lately. The potato plough, 

 when the land is friable, has reduced the cost of lifting ; and the artificial 

 manure maker enables the farmer to restore the fertility of the soil which the 

 removal of the potato extracts. 



Different methods of cultivation are determined by the various soils. 

 The sands in east Suffolk ; the gravelly soils in the west, where they are not 

 too poor ; and the strip of land already referred to as between Woolpit and 

 Newmarket, are the great sheep and lamb-breeding grounds. On the better 

 farms many lambs are bred and fattened — not leaving the holding till they 

 are fit for killing. Otherwise they are sold direct from the ewes at the 

 repositories already mentioned. This lamb-breeding partly accounts for the 

 system of growing wheat, roots, barley, and grasses in regular order. The 

 close folding of roots in winter by the ewes is the preparation for barley ; the 

 high feeding in summer tells on the wheat crop ; and so the root crop is the 

 commencement of a course resulting in the best cultivation and the largest 

 yield of cereals. It is the continuation of the old-fashioned four courses 

 system, practised in the time of Young, and still adhered to by the best 

 farmers on light and mixed soils. 



On the poorer soils the seeds are occasionally allowed to stand for more 

 than one year, but the yield in feed of the second is very little ; some try 

 a kind of self-producing herbage for three or more years ; and then a wheat 

 crop and perhaps mangold. The latter often produces a fair weight of 

 roots with artificial manure, or salt and nitrate of soda, with one ploughing. 



The plan adopted on the soils right and left of the Orwell is to get as 

 much out of the land as possible with liberal dressings of bought manures ; 

 high feeding of cattle in yards in winter and forcing sheep on roots and seeds. 

 Good farming, with much capital employed, may be seen here. But the 

 production of milk seems to be introduced in all districts. When the town 



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