Beginning of Modern Farming 51 



individuals as they are at present. This alteration presented 

 a new problem to farmers. At first they largely simplified their 

 task by turning arable into pasture. Cattle as well as sheep had 

 increased in numbers. Dairy-farming on a large scale was 

 common, especially in the north. When the suppressors of the 

 monasteries were at work taking an inventory of the property 

 which belonged to the monks of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire 

 they found on the demesne of this abbey 2,356 cattle and 1,326 

 sheep. The herd contained 738 cows, and the dairy produce for 

 sale must have been considerable. During the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries there was a large export trade in butter and 

 cheese, and occasionally in cattle to the Continent, so that in this 

 branch of farming much progress had been made. 



One form of enclosure was so much associated with reclamation 

 that it is more frequently referred to under this name. From the 

 complaints made about the creation of sheep-runs in the Midlands 

 it is apparent that enclosure was often carried out at the expense 

 of cultivation. The Acts of Parliament were directed against 

 the decay of tillage. Conditions were different in the east of 

 England, in all that stretch of level country which faces the 

 Wash, the deep bight of the North Sea which lies between 

 Lincoln and Norfolk. This great level embraces parts of Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Lincoln, 

 and it is said to extend to over 700,000 acres, the area of a large 

 county. In its character it resembles more than any other part 

 of England the low-lying territory of The Netherlands on the 

 opposite shores of the sea, and it had to be reclaimed by methods 

 with which the Dutch more than any other people were familiar. 



The draining and enclosure of small portions of this land had 

 begun in the reign of Henry VIII, but it was under the Stuart 

 kings and the Commonwealth that the work was most actively 

 undertaken. For several generations the Earls of Bedford took 

 the leading part in the enterprise, and they have given" the name 



D 2 



