50 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



of the land remained in pasture, the other half being 

 divided between corn and fallows. But by -and -by, 

 not satisfied with this proportion, the idea of artificial 

 grasses and roots suggested itself that is to say, the culti- 

 vation of certain plants exclusively intended for the food 

 of cattle and by so much was the domain of fallows 

 reduced. After a time the breadth of cereals itself was 

 diminished, and now, including oats, it occupies only a 

 fifth of the soil ; and what proves the excellence of this 

 system is, that in proportion as cattle increase, the return 

 from corn increases also ; though narrowed in extent, the 

 harvests are larger, thus effecting for agriculture a two- 

 fold benefit. 



The decisive step in this direction was taken sixty or 

 eighty years ago. At the time when France was occu- 

 pied with the sanguinary struggles of her political Revo- 

 lution, a less noisy and more salutary revolution was 

 being accomplished in English agriculture. Another man 

 of genius, Arthur Young, completed what had been begun 

 by Bakewell. While the one showed how the most was 

 to be made out of cattle, the other taught how the largest 

 possible number of them could be fed upon a given extent 

 of land. Extensive proprietors, whose efforts have been 

 rewarded with large fortunes, favoured the diffusion of 

 these ideas, by putting them into practice with success. 

 It was then that the famous four-year course, known as 

 the Norfolk rotation, from the country where it arose, 

 began to spread. This system, which, with some varia- 

 tion, prevails at the present day in England, has com- 

 pletely changed the character of the most ungrateful 

 land of that country, and everywhere created agricultural 

 richness. 



I will not here repeat the well-known theory of this 

 rotation. Everybody nowadays is aware that most forage 



