NORFOLK PREHISTORY 71 
roads as well as by the river valleys. The linear earthworks, particularly 
on the chalk ridge to the south-west, have not yet been excavated, but 
judging by the evidence of similar dykes in Cambridgeshire they derive 
from this period—the Bran dyke overlies 50 Anglian skeletons and 
appears to belong to the struggle for supremacy between East Anglia 
and Mercia. 
Whilst the extent of the Anglian Kingdom was similar to that of the 
Iceni, there seems reason to assume the late survival in the Fen area of 
Romano-British peasantry. 
The discovery of the Anglian cremation urns at Walsingham enriched 
English literature by Sir Thomas Browne’s Hydriotaphia, and marked 
the beginning of the study of Norfolk Archeology. 
1X, 
THE AGRICULTURE OF NORFOLK 
BY 
F. RAYNS, M.A., 
DIRECTOR OF NORFOLK AGRICULTURAL STATION. 
NorFOLK is probably the most important arable county in England. The 
total area of the county, excluding water, is 1,308,156 acres; 989,034 acres 
are under crops and grass, and two-thirds of the cultivated land is under 
the plough. During the past decade, when much land in the British 
Isles has been lost to the plough and the country in consequence has 
become even more pastoral, Norfolk farmers have continued to cultivate 
by far the greatest proportion of their land under the plough, and have 
maintained the very high standard of arable cultivation established by 
their forefathers. The size of the holdings varies in different parts of the 
county ; the largest are found in the west, where there has been a marked 
tendency for a number of holdings to be taken by one man, and worked 
as a large-scale enterprise. In the north-west of the county, in particular, 
holdings of 800 to 1,000 acres are quite common, and there are several 
farmers with more than 1,000 acres in their hands. The remainder of 
the county, however, is composed of smaller farms ; County Council 
small-holdings are up to 50 acres in extent, and the farms of other tenant 
farmers may be any size up to about 400 to 500 acres, the smaller farms 
predominating. ‘The statistics show that there are 13,203 holdings above 
I acre, 4,443 above 50 acres, 2,724 above 100 acres, 1,873 above 150 acres, 
and 8,760 below 50 acres. In some places in the county the area of 
permanent grassland has increased, but the increase has not materially 
