2 54 Histojy of the English Landed Interest. 



borders of fields were also utilised ; and wherever the soil from 

 ditches and ponds had been allowed to accumulate, a good 

 farmer would form a lazy-bed, and dibble in a few tubers, 

 thus supplying the wants of his kitchen. It was best for 

 potatoes planted in rows to be frequently horse-hoed ; the 

 common method of ploughing backwards or forwards every 

 time not being suitable, on account of the share cutting the 

 roots and destroying runners capable of producing fruit. 

 For this same reason the third horse-hoeing, which would 

 occur when the plants were in full growth, was performed 

 with a cultivator. There were many kinds of this imple- 

 ment, but they were all similar in their effect of cutting 

 and loosening the earth without turning it over or forming 

 any ridge. Some of them worked with many little tri- 

 angular shares, some with single flat ones, and others only 

 with coulters. ' A double mould-board plough followed the 

 cultivator a fortnight later, which banked up the earth against 

 the ridges and assisted further growth. In October the crop 

 was harvested by means of repeated ploughings and harrowings, 

 whereby not one potato in a thousand escaped being uncovered. 

 They were then handpicked, collected into baskets, and stored 

 out of the way of frosts until required for the market or table. 

 We need not, however, linger longer over the minor features 

 of the Norfolk system. All that we are told about the culti- 

 vation of such supplementary crops as the carrot, lucerne, etc., 

 is very similar to what we find in the text-books of modern 

 agricultural science. We may then take it for granted that 

 the East Anglian subjects of George III. were pursuing much 

 the same course of husbandry as that in use among the Norfolk 

 and Suffolk farmers who render ( heir allegiance to her present 

 Majesty. Arthur Young, in another work,^ informs us that 

 " half the county of Norfolk within the memory of man yielded 

 nothing but sheep feed ; whereas those very tracts of land are 

 now covered with as fine barley and r^^o as any in the world, 

 and great quantities of wheat besides. I have often in that 

 country seen fields of wheat of five quarters per acre, and six 

 quarters an acre of barley are common ; all these light lands 

 ' Farmer^s Letters. A. Younar. 



