198 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Gardening and agriculture are in some degree 

 allied in their progress and their results. Vegetables 

 that have been first introduced as luxuries into our 

 gardens have in time become the staple productions of 

 our fields. A remarkable instance of this is presented 

 in the history of our turnip-husbandry: 'Until 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century, this valua- 

 ble root was cultivated among us only in gardens 

 or other small spots, for culinary purposes; but 

 Lord Townshend, attending King George the First 

 in one of his excursions to Germany, in the quality 

 of secretary of state, observed the turnip cultivated 

 in open and extensive fields, as fodder for cattle, 

 and spreading fertility over lands naturally barren; 

 and on his return to England, he brought over with 

 him some of the seed, and strongly recommended the 

 practice which he had witnessed to the adoption of his 

 own tenants (in Norfolk), who occupied a soil similar 

 to that of Hanover. "The experimeat succeeded; the 

 cultivation of field-turnips gradually spread over the 

 whole county; and in the course of time it has made 

 its way into every other district of England. The re- 

 putation of the county as an agricultural district dates 

 from the vast improvements of heaths, wastes, sheep- 

 walks, and warrens, by inclosure and manuring the 

 fruit of the zealous exertions of Lord Townshend and 

 a few neighbouring land-owners which were, ere 

 long, happily imitated by others. Since these im- 

 provements were effected, rents have risen in that 

 county from one or two shillings to fifteen or twenty 

 shillings per acre; a country of sheep-walks and rab- 

 bit-warrens has been rendered highly* productive; and, 

 by dint of manage ment, what was thus gained has 

 been preserved and improved even to the present mo- 

 ment. Some of tho finest corn-crops in the world are 

 now grown on lands which, before the introduction of 

 the turnip husbandry, produced a very scanty supply 



