344 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



we had room for them both, but the addresses delivered would make volumes of 

 themselves. One thing we must say, that nothing argues worse — nothing more 

 clearly evinces the want of the true tone and spirit in the agriculturists ofVirginia 

 so much as that the local party papers, of which they have so many, and who may 

 be supposed to know something of what public sentiment demands, should have 

 felt themselves at liberty to withhold such Addresses as these. 



EXTRACT FROM MR. STEVENSON'S ABDRESS. 



And here Mr. President, I cannot forbear alluding to one exti-aordinary and distinguished 

 farmer of England, to whom not only she, but the whole world, are indebted, as one of the 

 greatest patioas of AgriculUire, and benefactors of Man. I allude to the late Lord Leicester, 

 better known as Mr. Coke, of Holkham, the gi-eat farmer commoner of England and the 

 devoted friend of America and all Americans. 1 can speak of him and his farms, with some 

 degree of accuracy, as it was my good fortune to obtain his friendship and regard, during my 

 residence in England, and spend many weeks with him in the country. This celebrated 

 Holkham estate, (or rather lanns, for it is divided into many,) contains many thousand acres. 

 The house, one of the most magnificent piles of architecture in the kingdom, covers an en- 

 tire acre of ground ; the immediate pleasure grounds ten acres, and the park eight or nine 

 miles in circumference, and had just been entirely inclosed with brick, when I paid my first 

 visit. The house was built by the first Earl of Leicester and his wife about 1734, and they 

 dying without children, it descended to Mr. Coke the nephew, as the next of kin. He was 

 then quite young. It remained totally neglected until he took possession of it on reaching 

 Ins majority, with no means however to cultivate, or improve it. He was advised to pull 

 down the house, sell the bricks, and dispose of the lands at any price or abandon them. It 

 was aljout this period that, speaking of the poverty ol Holkham, one of the females of the 

 Walpole family wittily said of it, " that there was always two rabbits contending for one 

 blade of grass." Its character and poverty hovi^ever admit of no doubt, lor ove^ the door 

 of the entrance hall is the following remarkable inscription in marble. 



"This Seat, On An Open Barren Estate 



■Was Planned, Planted, Built, Decorated, 



And Inhabited, The Middle Of The 18th Century, 



By Thomas Coke, Earl Of Leicester." 



On taking possession of the estate the first effort was to sell. He offered it at 2s. 6d. an acre, 

 but, being unable to get even that, he detennined to borrow the necessary funds and reclaim 

 it. He did so, removed to it in his twenty-second year and devoted himself to it for life. 

 Amid the prejudices, ignorance and apathy of the people of Norfolk, he continued firm and 

 resolute, and kept to his opinions and persevered for years with all his characteristic energy 

 of purpose. Then it was that things began to change. Men of talent and enterprise began 

 to take up the matter. The people were awakened out of the sleep which precedes disscj- 

 lution to consider and reflect on the subject, and their duties ; and in less than a quarter of a 

 century, his patriotism and industry triumi>hed over ignorance and apathy, and a poor barren 

 estate that could neither be sold nor cultivated, in its then state, was made a perfect garden 

 spot, yielding an income of 40 shillings or more an acre, and producing average crops in later 

 years of forty to fifty bushels of wheat and more to an acre. It was during one of my vis- 

 its, that he told me that he had lived to see all his expectations more than realized and justi- 

 fied ; and that one of the most gratifying things, connected v^'ith his agricultural life was, that 

 only a few months before, he had embarked with his wife and four sons on board of a vessel 

 which was launched at Wells, a small town near Holkham, which had been built out of Oak 

 jirodiiced from acorns of his own planting ! He v^^as then I suppose more than eighty, and 

 of course the oak was some sixtj' years old ! I will not suffer myself to speak of the extent 

 and vastness of the estate, created as it were by one man alone and unassisted. To give you, 

 however, from certain data, an idea of the extent and character of the cropping, I will read 

 an extract from a Treatise on Tractical Farmuig and Grazing, by C. Hilliard, Esq. a distin- 

 guished agriculturist, published in 1837, and a copy of which he was good enough to present 

 to me. In page 32 he says : 



" At Holkham the wheat, being short in the straw, is mowed with a cradle scythe : youths, wo- 

 men and boys, immediately following the mowers, isiuding it up (assisted by horse rakes) into 

 sheaves, which, as the straw is free from weeds, if the weather is particularly fine, they will carry 

 without setting the sheaves up in the usual manner in shocks. I was at Holkham, about eight 

 days, in the year 1831, at the time wheat was harvesting, and a most animating eight it was. I 

 counted above one hundred, men, women, and boys, employed in one large field. In this way, 

 three hvndred and forty -five acrc^ of wheat were cut, carted and stacked, in six days. This was 

 getting on with wheat harvest more expeditiously, perhaps, than is in the power of any otiier per- 

 6on in the kingdom. I saw at the same time, four hvndred and ffty acres of turnips, of ditfer- 

 ent sorts, and mangel-wnrzcl, in which Mr. Coke challenged me to find a single weed, excepting 

 some that might have just sprung up out of the ground. 1 could not see oue weed that was three 



