106 THE FERTILITY OF THE SOIL [CH. 



the first time to her new home, " will be one blade of 

 grass and two rabbits fighting for that." Coke's bio- 

 grapher and great-granddaughter, Mrs Sterling, thus 

 describes it\ "When Coke came into the property 

 the whole district round Holkham was little better 

 than a rabbit warren, varied by long tracts of shingle 

 and drifting sand, on which vegetation, other than 

 weeds, was impossible.. . .Indeed throughout the county 

 of Norfolk the agriculture was of the poorest descrip- 

 tion. Between Holkham and Lynn not a single ear 

 of wheat was to be seen, and it was believed that not 

 one would grow. All the wheat consumed in the 

 county was imported from abroad. And, meanwhile, 

 everything that ignorance could do was done to 

 impoverish further an already miserable soil. The 

 course of cropping where the land would produce 

 anything was three white crops in succession, and 

 then broadcast turnips. No manure was ever pur- 

 chased. The sheep were a wretched breed, and, 

 owing to the absence of fodder, no milch cows were 

 kept on any of the farms." Coke does not seem to 

 have begun experimental farming out of any abstract 

 desire for knowledge ; he was led to it by the obstinacy 

 of an old-time farmer named Brett. The lease under 

 which this man held his farm had fallen in and was 

 under discussion for renewal; the original rent had 

 been eighteen pence per acre ; this was subsequently 



1 Coke of Norfolk and his friends. London, 1908. 



