43^ History of the English Landed Interest. 



commencing with wheat and followed successively by turnips, 

 barley or oats, and a two-years' layer. The olland (as the 

 second 3''ear's clover or sainfoin root was called), as soon as 

 the last hay crop had been harvested, was pared, wrest- 

 balked, harrowed, and ploughed ; the wheat was sown broad- 

 cast at Michaelmas and ploughed. After harvest the stubble 

 was fed till Christmas with turnips thrown on it, then 

 scaled and ploughed in two-furrow ridges, and four more 

 earths were given before the barley was sown. As soon as 

 this latter crop was removec^ the stubble was ridge-balked 

 before Christmas, harrowed in March, and ploughed thrice 

 more. Farmyard muck at the rate of twelve loads per acre 

 was ploughed in shallow, and then it was sown with turnip 

 seed and rolled. Finally crushed rape-cake was drilled in as 

 a top dressing, and the young plants kept clean with the hoes. 

 Upon poor land half this crop was drawn, while half remained 

 to be fed off by sheep ; but on good land the whole crop was 

 removed into the cattle yards. As soon as possible after the 

 fallow was cleared of the roots it received three earths, and 

 the barley was then sown as before. A few days later clover 

 and rye-grass, less generally sainfoin seeds, were sown, and 

 the new layer mucked in the ensuing spring.^ The substitu- 

 tion of sainfoin for clover seeds was strongly advocated by 

 Kent on account of its manurial effects on the ensuing wheat 

 crop ; but neither Young nor Kent could have given a true 

 scientific reason for this result, and even Bacon, who alludes 

 to it, ascribes it to the now exploded humic theory, adding ^ 

 that the quantity cultivated in his time was not so great 

 as formerly in consequence of the application of artificial 

 manures. Evidently, however, as soon as the humic theory 

 was replaced by the teaching of Lawes and Grilbert the crop 

 regained its popularity, for it is used by all the advanced East 

 Anglian husbandmen of the present day.^ 



^ This account of Norfolk farming is from Mr. Bacon's admirable Prize 

 Essay on the subject, which the R.A.S.E. allowed him to publish in book 

 form. * Id. Ibid., p. 26. 



^ I myself, when practising farming in Norfolk, had ocular proof of 

 what I here assert. 



