56 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



followed Tull's system of drilling and horse hoeing. His sys- 

 tem of rotation covered four years, and included (i) turnips, 

 (2) barley, (3) clover and rye grass, (4) wheat. It was said 

 that when he began this system much of his estate was barren 

 heath, but by 1 760 it was brought to a high state of cultivation 

 and had increased in value tenfold. 



Coke of Holkham. The work begun by Tull and Townshend 

 was carried on with even more striking results by Coke of Holk- 

 ham, who began, about 1776, the reclamation of a body of 

 semibarren land which was described as little better than a 

 rabbit warren. Like his predecessors, he grew clover and turnips 

 and improved the rotation of crops, with the result that the 

 productivity of his land was more than doubled. He found 

 that most of the farmers were using too many horses in their 

 plow teams, the custom being to use from three to five. He 

 found that two were enough. It is said that he succeeded in 

 maintaining 2500 well-bred sheep on land which had formerly 

 supported only 800 worthless scrubs. He also became an ad- 

 mirer and breeder of Devon cattle. His estate achieved a world- 

 wide reputation ; his annual sheep shearings became great events, 

 men journeying from America to attend them, and Lafayette 

 expressed it as one of the regrets of his life that he had never 

 witnessed one. His influence did a great deal to bring about 

 improvements in agriculture all over England, and it is even 

 said that but for him and his influence England would not 

 have been able to produce food enough to sustain her during 

 the wars with Napoleon, and must therefore have succumbed. 1 



Gentlemen farmers. These three men Tull, Townshend, 

 and Coke did more for English agriculture than merely to re- 

 claim barren land and teach better farming to the rural class. 

 They raised agriculture to the rank of a learned profession, and 



1 See Curtler, A Short History of English Agriculture (Oxford, 1909), 

 pp. 227-228. 



