TUENIP TOWNSHEND AND THE NOEFOLK SYSTEM 47 



like logic, proved a most productive process. Townshend 

 adopted Tull's plan of drilling and liorse-lioeing turnips 

 instead of sowing them broadcast. He was an exponent 

 ■of tlie maxim that ' the more the irons are among the 

 turnijDS till the leaves spread across the rows, the better.' 

 His advocacy of turnips earned him the nickname of Turnip 

 Townshend, and supplied an example for Pope's Horatian 

 illustrations — 



Why, of two brothers rich and restless, one 

 Ploughs, burns, manures, and toils from sun to sun ; 

 The other slights, for women, sports, and wines. 

 All Townshend's turnips and all Grosvenor's mines. 



Those who followed Townshend's example realised 

 fortunes. In thirty years one farm rose in value from 

 1801. a year to 8001. ; another, rented by a warrener at 

 18^. a year, was let to a farmer at 240^. ; a farmer named 

 Mallet made enough off a holding of 1,500 acres to buy 

 an estate of the annual value of 1,800?. a year. Some 

 farmers were said to be worth ten thousand pounds. But 

 the practice spread by very slow degrees. Many persons 

 classed turnips with rats among Hanoverian novelties, 

 and refused their assistance with Jacobite indignation. 

 Nor was it possible to introduce roots or grasses among 

 open field farmers on land which was common from August 

 to Candlemas. But as the immense benefits of green 

 crops became more evident the work of enclosure was 

 accelerated. Besides the land enclosed by Acts of Par- 

 liament, thousands of acres were enclosed piecemeal by 

 interchange among individual occupiers, or by agreement 

 and redistribution in separate parcels among the whole 

 body of commoners. 



