578 Report on the Prize-Farm Competition of 1886, 
being bought, fattened, and sold again before the returns are 
issued. 
Sheep : — 
One year old and above 231 , 179 
Under 1 year old 215,879 
Total .. .. 447,058 
. .. 60,795 
8,345 
9,111 
- — — 17,456 
43,339 
It will be seen that, as with cattle, so most of the sheep must 
be bought in from other counties, as according to the returns 
only about 10 per cent, of the whole of the sheep stock are 
reared in the county. There appears to be only 1 sheep to 
1| acres. 
The total number of pigs in 1885 was 135,525, a decrease of 
19,000, or 14 per cent., as compared with the previous year. 
Figs .•— 
Bred in the county during one year 71,705 
Died from disease or accident 6,5.92 
Slaughtered for meat on holdings .. .. 43,270 
— 49,862 
21,843 
In Suffolk, as in Norfolk, great improvements appear to have 
been effected by marling or claying the weak sandy soils on the 
eastern and western sides of the county, and also on the fen- 
land at its north-western corner. 
It also seems to have been applied to soils of a^ heavier 
nature. A correspondent of the Board of Agriculture in 1796, 
with reference to Suffolk practice, writes, " Clay is thought to 
be as good a manure for heavy as for light land ; and it is a 
constant practice to lay clay upon clay land, especially if the 
land has been laid down with grass seeds for some years." 
I)ut what is peculiarly striking is to find that this practice, 
from which such immense benefits seem to have been derived, 
is now generally abandoned. The only approach to it — and it 
is a very distant one — which we found on any of the farms visited 
was at Mr. Learner's, who occasionally uses a light dressing of 
chalk-marl found in the valley of the Bure, as a corrective 
for finger-and-toe in his turnips. Whenever a report of the 
Bred in the county during one year 
Died from disease or accident 
Slaughtered for meat on holdings 
