82 NORFOLK BULLOCK FATTENING 



white turnips, which are pulled directly after harvest 

 for the sheep and the bullocks that are yet on the 

 grass or are being run over the stubbles and the new 

 leys. As a rule half the swedes are pulled for the 

 cattle, the rest being fed off by sheep. Barley gener- 

 ally follows the roots, though to a certain extent it 

 may, like the wheat, be replaced by oats, and in the 

 barley the seeds are sown, generally a very diversified 

 mixture, though rarely containing Italian rye-grass. 

 On the thin black soils the seeds are often left down 

 for a second year, naturally enough on such land the 

 expenses of cultivation have to be reduced as much 

 as possible. Other crops are rare ; thousand head and 

 cabbages take the place of some of the swedes on the 

 lighter lands where sheep predominate, and a break 

 may be made in the rotation to take a crop of vetches, 

 followed by mustard, but in the main the farming 

 sticks closely to the variations on the four-course 

 system that we have indicated. A certain number of 

 ewe flocks are kept, but the typical Norfolk farmer 

 buys his sheep in the summer to fatten out on the 

 turnips ; a good many pure Suffolks are seen, but 

 crossbreds are perhaps more common, Cotswold-Oxford 

 Down being a favourite cross. Cattle-breeding is even 

 less common, though this and the neighbouring county 

 of Suffolk do possess a distinctive breed in the Red 

 Polls deep-coloured, shapely animals, which are 

 regarded by their admirers as second to none for 

 combined meat and milk production, but which have 

 never become a numerous or a widely-diffused race. 

 Even in their native county they are by no means 

 common, for the special feature of Norfolk farming 

 is the fattening of stores which gather in the autumn 

 to Norwich market from Ireland, Wales, and the 

 Border country. As soon as the Norfolk farmer 



