174 JETHRO TULL AND LORD TOWNSHEND 



abroad, and devoting himself, above all, to improvements in the 

 rotation of crops, and to the field cultivation of turnips and clover, 

 which, in the preceding half century, had been successfully intro- 

 duced in the county. His land mainly consisted of rush-grown 

 marshes, or sandy wastes where a few sheep starved and " two 

 rabbits struggled for every blade of grass." The brief but exhaustive 

 list of its productions is " nettles and warrens." Townshend 

 revived the ancient but almost obsolete practice of marling the 

 light lands of Norfolk. Farmers believed that marl was " good 

 for the father, bad for the son," till he proved its value on the 

 sandy soil of the county. The tide of fashion set once more in its 

 favour, and farmers found another proverbial saying for their 

 purpose : 



" He who marls sand 



May buy the land ; 



He that marls moss 



Suffers no loss ; 



He that marls clay 



Throws all away." 



By the use of marl alone Young calculates that " four hundred 

 thousand acres have been turned into gardens." Following the 

 lines of Jethro Tull, Townshend drilled and horse-hoed his turnips 

 instead of sowing them broadcast. He was also the initiator of 

 the so-called Norfolk, or four-course, system of cropping, in which 

 cereals, roots, and artificial grasses were alternated. The intro- 

 duction of roots and grasses encouraged the farmer to observe the 

 useful rule of never taking two corn crops in succession, saved him 

 from the necessity of leaving a portion of land every year in unpro- 

 ductive fallow, enabled him to carry more stock and maintain it 

 without falling off during the winter months. For the light sands 

 of Norfolk turnips possessed a special value. Roots, fed on the 

 ground by sheep, fertilised and consolidated the poorest soil. 

 Another portion of the crop, drawn off and stored for winter keep, 

 helped the farmer to keep more stock, to obtain more manure, to 

 enrich the land, to increase its yield, to verify the truth of the 

 proverb " A full bullock-yard and a full fold make a full granary." 

 Farming in a circle, unlike arguing, proved a productive process. 



So zealous was Townshend's advocacy of turnips as the pivot 

 of agricultural improvement, that he gained the nickname of 

 " Turnip " Townshend, and supplied Pope with an example for 

 his Horatian Illustrations, (Bk. ii. Epist. ii. 11. 270-9) : 



