XI 

 NORFOLK BULLOCK FATTENING 



FROM the black Fen we made our way across to 

 the silt and the fruit-growing which has so recently 

 grown up round Wisbech, then rose off the rich flat 

 fen lands on to the sandy heaths which stretch along 

 the western border of Norfolk. Norfolk is very far 

 from being an agricultural unit, and, despite the 

 reputation which its farming deservedly enjoys, due 

 partly to the leaders it has always given to the 

 industry, from the time of Townshend to Coke and 

 Clare Sewell Read, the county contains some of the 

 poorest land in England. Along the western side 

 from Newmarket Heath by Brandon and Thetford up 

 to Sandringham on the north coast stretches a line of 

 barren heaths, where light blowing sands and sharp 

 gravels break through the scanty herbage and only 

 bracken and pine woods seem at home. The chalk is 

 beneath, as indeed it underlies the greater part of 

 the county, but as a rule it is too far below the 

 surface to play any part in forming the soil, which 

 shows every sign of deficiency of lime. Foxgloves 

 and bracken in the copses, corn mangold and spurrey 

 on the arable land, are rarely far away, and always 

 indicate lack of lime. In this area the farming is of 

 no great account and is confined to the valleys and 



occasional patches where a deeper soil has accumulated. 



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