The Husbandry of the Period. 257 



tural success Norfolk is no doubt indebted to the writings of 

 Tusser and Tull, and to the ocular proofs of profitable 

 husbandry afforded by the practice of Turnip Townshend. 

 The Norfolk soil may be at the present day considerably less 

 favourable for clover culture, and the Norfolk farmer less 

 endowed with the capital necessary for marling on so large 

 a scale, but otherwise the reputation of this district as the 

 leading English county in agricultural matters is not as yet 

 disputed, at any rate on this side of the Cheviots. 



On the mixed farm, suitable for cattle as well as sheep and 

 generally consisting of heavier land, much attention was be- 

 stowed on permanent pasture. The high ground was never 

 mown for fear of impoverishing the herbage, but the low 

 meadows were supposed to be refined by the hay crop.^ Many 

 farmers, however, objected to mowing the same turf land year 

 after year, judging (rightly we consider) that the most effec- 

 tive economy was one which allowed a field to be grazed and 

 mown alternately.^ The custom of " leying " cattle was 

 known and practised. Horses ran at grass for Is. 6c?. to 2s. 6c?. 

 per week, and colts at Is. ; oxen and cows, according to size, 

 from ^d. to Is. ; young store cattle were wintered at 2s. (in- 

 cluding the addition of hay and roots in bad weather), and 

 summered at Is. ; sheep were charged 2s. 6c?. to 3s. a score per 

 week, though on common pasturage the price was only Is. a 

 head per year.^ 



In the home counties, and especially around London, the 

 practice of dairy farming a hundred and fifty years ago had 

 been brought almost to the perfection it has attained at the 

 present day. The greatest care was bestowed by the cow- 

 keepers on their meadows and pastures. Kalm, in 1748, 

 noticed, even as early as the first of May, a grass growth so 

 thick and luxuriant that it was a foot and more in height. 

 By the middle of this same month he describes it as long as 

 that in the best Swedish meadows at the close of July. The 



* The. Country Gentleman^s Vade Mecum. Giles Jacob, 1717, 

 ^ Practical Husbandry, or the Art of Farming, etc. Rev. John 

 Trussler, LL.D., 1780. 

 ^ The Country Gentleman's Vade Mecum. G. Jacob, 1717. 

 II. 



