530 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION M. 



Cattel, as the best meadows in the Countrie do not yield the like.' All of 

 which set Sir Eichaid reflecting ' what an huge Improvement I might make 

 of my own Estate, ... if God Almightie pleased to permit mee quietly to 

 enjoie it.' " 



But Sir Richard was never to carry out iii.s intention, and then, as now, it 

 took a long time to introduce an improvement simply by recommending it. For 

 already the writers on agriculture had begun to spoil matters by putting forth 

 visionary schemes, characterised by more enthusiasm than discernment. In 

 1580 the first English poultry book appeared,^ showing, like a multitude of 

 successors, ' how, by the Housebandrie, or rather Housewiferie of Hennes, for 

 five hundred Frankes or Frenche pounde (making Englishe money bbl. lis. Id.) 

 once emploied, one male gaine in the yere fower thousande and five hundred 

 Frankes (whiche in Englishe money, maketh five hundreth poundes) of honeste 

 profite : all costes and charges deducted.' In the same spirit Speed wrote later 

 on ' shewing, among many other things, an Aprovement of ground by Eabbits 

 from 200Z. annual Eent, to 2000Z. yearly profit, all charges deducted. ' * 



Not till the middle of the eighteenth century was the large-scale test forth- 

 coming. In 1730 Charles, 2nd Viscount -Townshend, retired from political life 

 to Eaynham, near Fakenham, in Norfolk, to make his famous experiments with 

 turnips and clover, and finally solved the problem of combining animal 

 husbandry with crop-growing — two branches of farming which in the past had 

 often been found mutually antagonistic. Lord Townshend's method was to 

 grow turnips on a large ecale, and then allow the animals to eat the crop in 

 i<itu, 60 that their manure might fertilise the land for the next crop and their 

 treading might consolidate it and so improve it as a seed-bed. After turnips a 

 crop of barley was taken, and after this a crop of grass and clover, part of 

 which could be cut as hay to supply food for the animals during the winter, 

 and the remainder eaten in the field by the animals in order to fertilise the 

 ground for the wheat crop. After wheat, turnips were taken again. The plan 

 was thoroughly sound, and both animals and crops flourished : it survives to 

 this day under the name of the Norfolk rotation, and many progressive farmers 

 .«;till use it with but the small modification that they often grow two corn-crops 

 in succession after the turnips. 



But Townshend's improvements were not immediately adopted ; certain diffi- 

 cullies also arose which he did not overcome. Turnips are liable to attacks of a 

 minute beetle, PJnjIIofrcfa neinoruni, commonly known as the ' fly,' which in dry 

 weather sometimes almost destroyed the crop and left the animals without 

 food for the winter. Red clover (the ordinary variety grown) will not always 

 grow every fourth year, but sometimes fails after the second or third time. 

 Thus under the combined attacks of turnip-fly and of clover sickness the farmer 

 might find himself with a number of animals on his hands and no food for them, 

 an awkward predicament from which he rarely extricated himself without 

 considerable financial loss. 



Fortunately another public-spirited landowner in the same district came 

 forward a,nd continued the experiments : Thomas William Coke, afterwards 

 Earl of Leicester, who inherited in 1776 his uncle's estate at Holkham, about 

 twelve miles north of the scene of Lord Townshend's labours. Although Coke 

 did not surmount these diflSculties (no one has entirely done so even yet) he got 

 round them by increasing the range of crops so that he should not be wholly 

 dependent on turnips and clover. Instead of having the whole of his land in 

 four crops he devoted some of it to others, such as sainfoin, winter- and spring- 

 grown tares, mangolds, cocksfoot, potatoes, &c. He purchased oil-cakes for his 

 animals, and thus not only fattened them more rapidly, but also increased the 

 amount of fertilising material in the manure. In this way he imported fertility 

 from other districts to his own, a process which has now become a regular part 

 of British husbandry. Thus sheep and cattle remained the central features of 

 Ihe farm, but the margin of safety was increased by gro\ving other fodder crops 



' Hartlib, Husbandry m Flanders, 1650. 



^ A Discourse of Housebandrie, no lesse profitable than delectable etc., by 

 Prudens Choiselat . . . translated into Englishe by R. E. 1580. 

 * Ad. Speed. Adam out of Eden. 1659. 



