The Lod^e Farm, Castle Acre, Norfolk. 
465 
of the material got out being used to make the bank. The cost 
of making the ditch and bank and planting the quick is usually 
from Ad. to 5rf. per yard. It is usual to place a fence of dead 
thorns, or of post and wire on the top of the bank until the hedge 
has grown above it ; and, if the ditch is on the field-side, 
hurdles are required to protect the young quick from the attacks 
of sheep. The quicks are allowed to grow about three years, and 
are then cut off upwards to within 3 or 4 inches of the stump ; they 
are then allowed to grow uninterruptedly for about two years, 
after which they are begun to be trimmed into a clipped hedge, 
or " haze." The fences are trimmed to a height of from 2 to 
2^ feet above the top of the bank, to a width at the base of from 
18 inches' to 2 feet, and tapering off to about 6 inches wide at 
the ridge. Hedges are clipped and trimmed, and the banks 
cleaned, at odd times just before and after harvest, as day-work. 
The banks are held sacred as a covert for partridges, whose nests 
are most jealously guarded by farmers, labourers, and everyone 
else in the county. Gates are provided by the landlord, the 
tenant paying 5s. each for the cost of making them. 
Geass-Land. 
The grass-land consists of about 200 acres, all of which is 
pasture, and fed principally by sheep. From 40 to 50 acres of 
it are irrigated ; but even this, although very good as feeding 
land, is useless for meadovving. Irrigating is begun in November 
after the grass has been eaten off, and the water is shifted in suc- 
cession from one part to another, after having remained a few days 
on each, until the beginning of March. The cost of cleaning oat 
drains, the river, and so forth, is about 10s. per acre annually. 
Sheep are put on the irrigated pastures by day as soon as there 
is good feed for them, generally about the end of March or 
beginning of April. 
Arable Land. 
Five-and-twenty years ago, when this Society offered a prize 
for the best Essay on the Agriculture of Norfolk, Mr. Hudson 
farmed on the indigenous four- field system, and his modus 
operandi was described in some detail by Mr. Barugh Almack, 
in his commended Essay, published in the fifth volume of this 
'Journal.' For some years past Mr. Hudson has farmed on a 
five-course system, getting some catch crops in addition, as fol- 
lows : — 1, wheat ; 2, barley, followed by (a; tares and winter-oats, 
(h) early peas, or (c) rye for feeding ; 3, turnips ; 4, barley ; and 5, 
seeds. At present, however, Mr. Hudson is gradually getting his 
shift back to the ordinary four-course system, as on the whole he 
