On the Farming of Suffolk. 



267 



5. The cultivation of mangel lourzel. 



6. The admixture of the subsoil with the surface, by claying 

 and marling light land. 



7. The cultivation of roots, particularly carrots, on light land. 



8. The manufacture and use of agricultural implements. 



9. The breed oi farm-horses. 



Having thus enumerated the most striking features in the 

 farming of the county, I shall proceed to give a description m 

 detail of the 



Management of the Heavy Land. 

 I shall first treat of the heavy land district, which is the most 

 extensive, as will be seen by reference to the map ; and from its 

 extent, and the general superior quality of the land, it is also the 

 most important. Draining and the peculiar system of drill hus- 

 bandry have rendered it one of the finest corn districts in Eng- 

 land ; the increased cultivation of green and root crops, especially 

 mangold- wurzel, is rapidly contributing to place the farmers 

 among the largest graziers of fat sheep and cattle. A great por- 

 tion (the middle and northern part) was in the time of Arthur 

 Young the seat of the celebrated Suffolk dairies ; these have nearly 

 disappeared : it is said that there is not a tenth part of the number 

 of cows now kept. At that time the dairy farms consisted of grass 

 land ; they are now chiefly arable, and what pasture remains is 

 rapidly being broken up wherever permission is given to do so. 



The low price of butter and cheese, caused by the competition 

 with Ireland and Holland, and a reason which I have heard ad- 

 vanced by more than one farmer, viz. the difficulty of procuring 

 dairy servants, have mainly contributed to the disuse of the dairy 

 system. But when w'e consider it is now asserted by many who 

 were themselves dairy farmers that one-third more is paid for rent, 

 two-thirds more for tithes, and double the amount for labour than 

 was paid under the dairy management of the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century, it shows at once that the improvement in the 

 farming has been very great, particularly as this is a thickly inha- 

 bited agricultural district, where nearly the entire labouring popu- 

 lation has to depend on the farmer for its subsistence. 



Hemp was grown in the time of Arthur Young to some extent 

 in that part of the county between Eye and Beccles, but its culti- 

 vation is very nearly discontinued. 



The present system of drilling was in its infancy when Arthur 

 Young wrote his report ; it is now become general, and on the 

 soil adjoining (the light land district) it is probably carried too far, 

 for here light sandy land is sometimes seen ploughed in narrow 

 stetches, with deep furrows between them ; this must occasion a 

 loss as nothing grows in the furrows, and also cause injury by the 

 deep furrows drawing the water from the soil. 



