IIOSI'ITAMTV.] 



MODKKX HNdl.lSIl I'AKMIXG. 



[kattenino. 



was the isolation in which farmers lived. They 

 wtMv nearly as much lixturea as tlicii* houses; 

 and what was done upon one side of a hedj^o 

 w :is hardly known upon the other. " Tho 

 Lortl of Jlolkham instituteil his annual sheep- 

 yhearing, at which he feasteil crowds of quests 

 from all parts, and of all degrees. Under tho 

 guise of a gigantic festival, it was an agricul- 

 tural school of tlie most eft'i-ctive kind ; for 

 the social benevolence engendered by such 

 magnificent hospitality disarmed prejudice ; 

 and manv wlio would liave looked with dis- 

 dain upon new breeds of stock, new-fangled 

 implements, and new modes of tillage, re- 

 garded them with favour when they came 

 recommended by their genial host. * * • 

 Excluded by his political opinions from public 

 oQice, and the favour of the court, Mr. Coke 

 found abundant compensation in the feudal 

 state of gatherings, at which, as a contem- 

 porary journal records, hundreds assembled, 

 and were entertained. Tarmiug, hunting, or 

 shooting in the mornings : after dinner, dis- 

 cussing agricultural subjects ; whether the 

 Southdown or new Leicester was the better 

 sheep — whether the Devon or the old Norfolk 

 OS was the more profitable. In dealing with 

 those who farmed under him, he showed the 

 same wisdom as in his own village. He formed 

 an intimacy with Young, and acted on three 

 of his maxims, on which agricultural progress 

 mav be said to depend — ' that a truly good 

 tenant-farmer cannot be too much favoured, 

 or a bad one have his rent raised too high ;' 

 tliat 'good culture is another name for much 

 labour;' that 'great farmers are generally 

 rich farmers.' By these methods he raised 

 his rental to more thousands a year than it 

 was Inindreds when he inherited the estate, 

 lind had enriched a numerous tenantry into 

 t!ie bargain. « * * The wealth, never- 

 theless, which accrued to himself was the 

 snv.dlest part of the gain. He was a national 

 benefactor upon a mighty scale, and was the 

 cause, directly and indirectly, of adding a 

 countless mass of corn and cattle, of beef and 

 mutton, bread and beer, to tho resources of 

 the country." 



ARTIFICIAL FATTENING. 

 In lS2i, from a suggestion made by Mr. 

 Blackie (^the steward of Mr. Coke), Mr. John 



Hudson, of tho farm of Castlo Acre, entered 

 upon tho experiment of supplying his young 

 wethers with oil-cako and sliced turnips. 

 "What, in tho last century, would have been 

 thought of such an act ? Ho would have hci'n 

 pronounced mad, and in a cotulilion suitable 

 only to become tho inhabitant of a lunatic 

 asylum. Jiut what was tho result ? When 

 ]\Ir. Coke asked to see tho produce of his 

 tups, he foutul that they had been sent to 

 market twelve months before the usual time. 

 Yet even the neighbours of Mr. Hudson, and 

 even his own father, a man of intelligence and 

 agricultural progress, prognosticated his ruin 

 from his extravagance in purchasing food for 

 sheep. Now, however, tho buying of linseed- 

 cake, or meal, or foreign pulse, is one of the 

 regular means by which an increased quantity 

 of meat is grown. Wherever turnips are 

 raised and sliced, there the cake-trough is 

 to be seen ; and the improved material for 

 feeding, united to the natural tendency of the 

 best breeds to arrive at an early maturity, has 

 increased, to an amazing extent, the quantity 

 of mutton in the kingdom. It is affirmed, by 

 Mr. Morgan, that, twenty years ago, the 

 majority of sheep brought to Smithfield 

 market were three and four years old; and 

 to find a score under two, Avould have been a 

 matter of some difficulty. And now a three- 

 year-old sheep is scarcely to be met with ; 

 whilst fat sheep, no more than a twelve- 

 month old, are abundant. Thus, independent 

 of the vast increase in the numbers kept, 

 three generations of sheep are fed and fat- 

 tened for our tables, in the same space of 

 time in which one was prepared in 1S3S. 

 But purchased food would have been almost 

 thrown away on the former species of tardy- 

 growing animals. Applied, however, to the 

 improved stock, reared on the principles of 

 Bakewell, it has created a demand, not only 

 for tups from Sussex, steers from the Quan- 

 tock hills, and oil-cake from Germany, but for 

 new im[)lement3 and machinery of almost 

 every agricultural description. 



For some time the Leicester breed of sheep 

 was preferred by Mr. Coke ; but he subse- 

 quently replaced them with the Southdowns. 

 Tiiese he considered superior ; and the bring- 

 ing of them to the high state of perfection in 

 which they are beheld by the present genera- 



893 



