12 DUAL PURPOSE CATTLE 



Every idea of this most accurate farmer merits much attention (p. 261). Mr. 

 Reeve's farm is in such order that attention should be paid to his practice and 

 opinions (p. 276). He may, perhaps, be considered as prince of grass land im- 

 provers: he has very few rivals that have come to my knowledge (p. 375). 



John Reeve told Young that "he had kept a large dairy of cows," 

 but thought them "the worst stock that can be kept on a farm, as 

 turnips are drawn for them instead of being fed on the land, and more 

 straw is eaten by them instead of being trodden than by any other 

 stock." It is also evident that the two agriculurists had discussed 

 the relative worth not only of Leicester and Southdown sheep, but 

 also of varieties of cattle, for Arthur Young could not fail to tell 

 Reeve that he had 



viewed a dairy at Mileham, Mr. Carrington's, the only one left in the country of 

 the true old Norfolk breed of cattle middle-horned, color red, in some not much 

 unlike the Devon ; as loose and ill-made as bad Suffolks. 



He quoted Marshall as "giving a much more favorable idea of 

 those cattle" which he had seen in northeast Norfolk in 1780-2. It 

 may be presumed that Reeve, in 1804, had thus learned from Young 

 that, within a few miles, he might yet find the means of improving 

 Norfolk cattle, rather than by adopting Devons or Durhams. The 

 Norfolk Poll-book, of 1806, shows Reeve voting as "freeholder and 

 occupier" at Wighton; in that of 1815 as "John Reeve, gent., free- 

 holder and occupier;" and in 1837, nine years after he had retired 

 from farming, as yet "freeholder and occupier" at Wighton. 



THE MATERIAL 



East Anglia, the name applied to the Norfolk and Suffolk area, 

 is almost an island. Its cattle thus were, down t*> ";he early years of 

 the 18th century, less likely to be a mixture of breeds than in most 

 other parts of the Kingdom. Moreover, there prevailed a strong 

 feeling of antagonism against "off-comes" (to use an old English com- 

 pound); and even fifty years ago "come from the shires" was an ex- 

 pression of stout opposition. Cattle which were supposed to be de- 

 scended from old-time farm herds were termed "Home-breds." Jonn 

 Lawrence, a Colchester man, who had farmed near Bury St. Edmund's, 

 in his "General Treatise on Cattle" (1805, 2d ed. 1809), says: 



NORFOLK HOMEBREDS, so styled, since that county, from its great im- 

 provement in cultivation, has ceased to be much of a breeding one, having found it 

 generally more advantageous to purchase, are found, nevertheless, to graze earlier 

 and quicker than either the Scots or Welsh, so much inuse in Norfolk : and no 

 cattle are said to make better proof, or to bear a higher character with the Smith- 

 field salesmen, than Norfolk homebreds. 



Lawrence would seem to have had small acquaintance with the 

 notes on Norfolk made by William Marshall thirty years earlier, or 

 his evidence on "home-breds" would have been quoted. Strange to 

 say, David Low, in his voluminous work "On the Domesticated Ani- 

 mals of the British Isles," is just as silent; though he was, in 1845, 

 "Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh." He how- 

 ever, proves to be a good commentator on Marshall. 



That the northeastern low-lying, well-watered, fertile district of 

 Norfolk was settled from beyond the sea long before Roman adminis- 

 tration had ended is evidenced by "Danish camps," to protect the 

 settlers, being near to the streams, that in this olden time were navig- 

 able by "Viking" ships. It is thus that we may account for the "true 

 old Norfolk breed of cows" which Arthur Young saw in 1804 in Mid- 

 Norfolk and at Rainham, this last being a cow 36 years old, of which 

 an oil painting was a few years ago yet at Rainham Hall. 



"Mr. Marshall," a Yorkshireman who had farmed in his native 

 county, began his most useful career, as an observant, constantly 



