THE AGRICULTURE OF NORFOLK 79 
a secondary consideration, but many farmers specialise in seed crops of 
mustard, mangolds, beet, turnips and swedes. Spring cabbage and early 
flowers—daffodils and tulips—are also grown. ‘Thus the district is quite 
unlike any other part of Norfolk. Its agriculture, like its soil, belongs 
more to that of the adjoining Holland division of Lincolnshire. 
On the fen soils, beet is now the chief crop, especially with the smaller 
farmer. Next come potatoes and cereals, while celery is a speciality with 
many men on the lighter fens. 
The farming of the silts is very high, and large quantities of artificial 
fertilisers are used. In cases where farmyard manure is scarce, it is a 
common practice to plough in mustard or clover as a green manure. 
Labourers in the Marshlands and Fens are very hard-working and 
intelligent men and often possess a little land of their own. They work 
in an intensively farmed area and are comparatively well paid as they 
receive much piece work. 
The deep soil and absence of hedges with even contours of the land 
makes it possible to employ cable cultivators and Gyro tillers, and to 
plough very deeply, up to 18 in. being not unusual. The Marshlands 
are the Norfolk land of Goshen. 
SMALL HOLDINGS. 
This county also maintains its reputation as the premier agricultural 
county by leading in the provision of statutory small holdings under the 
various Acts of 1908-1931, the County Council controlling 29,510 acres 
(of which 26,580 acres were purchased), occupied by 2,074 tenants at a 
rent roll of £67,270. 
The density of the holdings naturally follows the quality of the soil, 
and concentrates in two main areas, east on good loams and west in the 
Marshlands and Fens, although there are also some very successful schemes 
in the Dereham-Fakenham district. The southern part of the county— 
principally boulder clay—contains a large number of naturally small 
farms with a consequent reduced demand on the Council. 
The holdings, as may be expected, are mainly arable, the average 
proportion of grass being one-sixth. ‘There are considerable variations 
in size, from 4 acres in the fruit district near Wisbech to the maximum 
50 acres in the north-east. A number of fully-equipped minor holdings 
of about 10 acres have recently been created at the request of the Ministry 
of Agriculture, but, possibly owing to the distance from suitable markets, 
the major holdings of 45-50 acres, family farms, are in great demand, 
in fact, the average acreage has increased from g in 1909 to 15 last year, 
with a consequent drop in the number of tenants. 
The depression has, of course, seriously affected small-holders as well 
as the larger farmers, and a considerable number of ‘ bare-land ’ holdings 
have been given up during the past five years. ‘To counteract this, the 
energetic County Land Agent, Mr. T. G. Ellis, has not only modernised 
the existing equipment, but arranged the provision of new houses and 
_ buildings wherever necessary, and the county can rightly claim to have 
4 
some of the most up-to-date estates in the country. Dairying has naturally 
_ increased, with the consequent improvement of cowsheds, dairies and 
