THE TURNIP CROP IN NORFOLK. 167 



turnips. They delight in goading and driving the underlings 

 about, and allow them but little rest. 



Hence the great inequality observable in the condition of 

 yard-fed bullocks compared to those in stalls ; and hence the 

 astonishment so often expressed by farmers, that, after their 

 fattest beasts have been sent to market, the remainder thrive 

 rapidly. It is then perceived that those bullocks which ap- 

 pear the least prone to fatten, would perhaps have been the 

 forwardest, had they been separate from the others. 



On these several accounts, boxes are much to be preferred to 

 yards ; but when artificial food is added to turnips, their value 

 is still further enhanced. For, if the master-bullock will drive 

 away an underling for the sake of a choice piece of turnip, he 

 will naturally be more resolute to obtain an undue share of 

 oil-cake, or of the still more palatable compound. 



In fact, the system of feeding cattle in boxes can be regulated 

 to the greatest nicety ; while that in the yard must ever re- 

 main slovenly, wasteful, and imperfect. 



If such terms as these can be applied to winter-feeding, they 

 are far more applicable to our present system of summer- feed- 

 ing. To obtain a crop of turnips, neither cost nor trouble is 

 spared, and the greatest skill and anxiety are displayed; 

 while for grass comparatively little expense is bestowed, and 

 little care taken. 



Turnips are called the ' ' Sheet Anchor to Norfolk Farmers ;" 

 because upon this crop they mainly depend for a supply of 

 manure. Turnips are also called "a necessary evil," on 

 account of the return for grazing being, in the average of 

 years, less than the expenditure. But grass, except under the 

 denomination of hay, or as an accommodation for lean stock 

 and farm horses, is seldom heard of. Now, were only half the 

 cost and skill bestowed to increase the productiveness of grass, 

 and that grass given to cattle in boxes according to my plans, 

 farmers might fearlessly cut the cable, escape from the sheet 

 anchor and necessary evil at once, and pursue the course which 

 the title to my letters so clearly points out. 



I wish it to be understood that I aim not at the abolition of 

 the turnip crop, but merely at its not being the main depend- 

 ence for fattening cattle, and for making manure. 



