142 Agriculture 



little doubt that the change has arisen from a desire to grow crops giving 

 a higher gross return per acre than can normally be obtained from the 

 bean crop. 



Mangolds and the various types of Brassicae for sheep feed are grown to 

 a less extent each year. The combined acreage under these crops in 1937 

 was only 12,000 acres, the lowest return of post-war years. Though the 

 larger dechne in 1937 may in part be due to adverse weather conditions, 

 there is little doubt that the establishment of the sugar-beet crop and the 

 reduction in the number of arable flocks of sheep and of winter-fed bullocks 

 have played the major part in the gradual reduction of the acreage under 

 these crops. 



Market-Garden Crops occupy a relatively small acreage, but make no 

 mean contribution to the gross income per acre in those areas specially 

 selected for their cultivation. With the exception of crops such as asparagus, 

 and of very limited areas (e.g. on the Gairdingay Greensand), market- 

 garden crops are taken generally in the ordinary farm rotation. The two 

 principal crops of tliis nature, celery and carrots, are grown chiefly in the 

 Isle. Celery thrives well in the cool, deep and moist black fen soils and its 

 cultivation now covers over 3000 acres — three times the area in 19 13 and 

 more than one-third of the total celery acreage in England and Wales as 

 a whole. Carrots, chiefly of the stump-rooted type, are grown extensively 

 in certain well-defined areas, e.g. around Chatteris. Other crops of some 

 importance are peas and beans for puUing, grown chiefly in the Isle, 

 Brussels sprouts (grown mainly on some of the stifler soils in the County), 

 cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, and asparagus, though the latter has not 

 been grown so widely of late years. 



It will have become evident that the rotations to accommodate the large 

 number of crops already mentioned must show some considerable varia- 

 tion. In general they vary from three to six courses. On the one hand, a 

 three-course system of two fallow crops and a corn crop is common on the 

 best fen soils. At the other extreme, there is the hght land three- or six- 

 course rotation of the mechanised farmer, who hopes to grow corn on 

 two-thirds of his arable acreage each year. Then there is the standard 

 four-course rotation of the heavy-land farmer, where 50 per cent of the 

 land is cropped with com ; and the common rotation of the chalk farm, 

 viz. fallow crop, com, com, seeds, corn, though in this case there are 

 modifications in the arrangement of the crops and some still prefer the 

 Norfolk four-course rotation. 



Fruit growing andfiower culture are concentrated in certain well-defined 

 areas, which were mainly under grass, or part of an ordinary mixed farm 

 rotation, until some sixty years ago.' With certain notable exceptions, fruit 



' See pp. 131 and 153. 



