664 Report of the Senior Steward of Live-Stock. 
Conclusion. 
In our prefatory remarks, the deduction we drew from the 
Board of Trade Returns as to the cropping of the county was, 
that the rotation which took its rise in it, and has been so long 
known as " the Norfolk four-course System," is yet the predomi- 
nant one ; the same applying to Suffolk. Our observation extends 
only to the 14 competing farms, and therefore limited ; their 
practice, however, in the main confirms the accuracy of these 
deductions ; but a noteworthy fact which they exhibit is, that 
where they do deviate from the standard rotation, it is not, as 
might have been expected, in the direction of grass, but of corn. 
In almost every other district of the country at the present time 
the cry is grass, more grass, and the converse which holds here 
is probably owing to climatic influences. On the better class of 
soils, where 5 quarters of wheat and from 5 to 6 quarters of 
barley per acre can be grown, with root and clover crops 
equally satisfactory, it is by no means so clear, even with 
present low prices, that a change of rotation would materially 
benefit the Norfolk or Suffolk farmer. But on the thin light 
sands, on chalk, sand, or gravel subsoils, the case may be 
different, and a prolongation of the layers to two or three years 
might be found a great improvement. Nevertheless, in dealing 
Avith this or any other established practice that has taken deep 
root in a district, a departure from it should be deliberate and 
cautious. My own experience has been varied enough to deter 
me from falling into the mistake of condemning practices which 
I find in one part of the country, merely because they differ 
from others that are successful in another ; and I cannot doubt 
that the many able and enlightened agriculturists now in 
practice in Norfolk will fully maintain its ancient prestige. 
Whatever rotation, under present circumstances, experience may 
prove to be best, they will now, as in the past, prove equal to 
the occasion, and be prompt in their adoption of it ; and with 
the good wishes of my colleagues and myself for their success in 
whatever change of front they may find essential, I beg to make 
my bow on behalf of us all. 
XXIII. — Report of the Senior Steward of Live-Stock. By 
Alfred Ashwortii, of Tabley Grange, Knutsford, Senior 
Steward. 
The forty-seventh Country Meeting of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, held at Norwich, under the Presidency of 
H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, will rank as one of the most 
