Practical Agriculture. 
609 = 343 
As in Essex, the custom is to plough heavy lands in stetches Stetches. 
■ ten or twelve furrows each, the harrows, rollers, drills, and 
irse-hoes being constructed to fit these arched strips, so that the 
jrses walk in single file along the divisional or water-furrows, 
ariable as are the courses of cropping, the most general is, Rotations. 
) fallow, part bare, part mangolds or tai es, with a small pro- 
'jrtion of turnips, (2) barley, (3) half clover, half beans or peas, 
;) wheat. On the lighter soils the four-course husbandry 
••evails ; (1) fallow, growing swedes, turnips, carrots and man- 
)lds, with a part rye fed off, followed by late turnips, (2) barley, 
seeds, clover, trefoil, and rye-grass, or sainfoin, (4) wheat, 
n the rich loams, extra cropping is the practice, stubble- 
rnips being largely grown on rye, white barley, or vetches, 
be followed by white turnips in the same year ; and colewort 
kohl rabi is often sown on broken up clover layers. 
Norfolk, one of England's most celebrated counties, for the Norfolk, 
rfection of its light-land husbandry, for its high-quality bar- 
V s, for its sheep-farming and bullock-feeding, as well as for 
; four-course system and for the lead given to agricultural 
iprovements by its memorable proprietor, the late Earl of 
.;icester, does not enjoy natural advantages either of soil or 
■ mate. Too arid for the growth of deep, luxuriant, early-and- 
!;e-season pasturage and for the production of turnips nutri- 
lus as those of the Lothians or parts of Scotland farther north, 
ibject to biting north-east winds which sweep over its unwooded 
jiins in spring, and to fervid skies which parch up its seeds 
;d green forage in summer, Norfolk does not encourage by 
inospheric influences either the grazier or che arable cultivator. 
.?ither is the surface — for the most part gently undulating, pre- 
siting successions of large-field farms, especially in the west, 
fd smaller, but still neatly-hedged inclosures of smaller farms, 
th more sheltering woodland in the east — that of a country of 
idly soil, rich in native fertility. A main portion of West 
j)rfolk possesses only a weak soil of thin, sandy, and flinty 
lims, resting upon the upper chalk ; in the south-west is a 
1 ct of poor, light sand, reclaimed from rabbit-warren and sheep- 
' Ik ; in parts of central Norfolk and in the south-east lie 
t cts of strong loam and mixed soils ; to the north-east extend 
t' fine productive sand loams, including the Blofield Hundred, 
s)ken of as "the garden" of the county; and there are tracts 
( artificially-drained peat fens and of flat alluvial marshes in 
t' extreme west and bordering the Wash, and also upon the 
' ist and bordering the rivers in the south-east. 
On the good lands the four-course rotation is largely replaced Rotations, 
the five-course, oats or barley following the wheat after seeds ; 
I on the fallow-break mangolds to a great extent take the 
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