140 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. { August io, isss, 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
THE NORFOLK OR FOUR-COURSE SYSTEM OF 
CROPPING. 
This mode of culture and cropping, which was the regeneration 
of West Norfolk, was introduced by Mr. Coke, afterwards created 
Earl of Leicester, and whose spirited farming and development 
of sheep-breeding and winter-feeding of cattle on an extensive 
scale, and the expenditure of £400,000 in the erection of superior 
farm buildings on his estate, which, together with permanent 
improvements in the use of manures, the use of oil cake, and the 
liberal system of general improvements in cultivation, induced 
the farmers of the period to boast that this system had converted 
West Norfolk from a Rye-growing into a Wheat-growing district. 
We have chosen to introduce this subject to the notice of the home 
farmer at this particular time of year, because as fast as the crops 
of this year’s harvest are cleared from the land it is notoriously 
the best period for arranging or re-arranging any system of crop¬ 
ping which may be deemed advisable to be carried out in the 
immediate future. In consequence of the change of circum¬ 
stances which have prevailed for a few years past, it will of 
necessity oblige the home farmer to consider his position under 
the altered character of agriculture, and induce him to forecast 
any changes which may be desirable in the system of cropping 
best calculated to yield a profit, instead of acting entirely under 
the influence of former traditions. One great point in his favour 
is that he is a free agent, more particularly if his employer does 
not interfere or recommend any special mode of conducting the 
business of the home farm as regards the cattle and general stock 
of the farm, including the rotation of cropping. It is frequently 
made a point that the land shall be managed upon the four-course 
or Norfolk rotation of cropping, simply because it is so easy to be 
conducted under a course of cropping laid down, whether it is the 
four-course or any other. The four-course, however, is the easiest 
and most regular mode of conducting the home farm, because the 
cropping is fixed ; and there is then only the simple and practical 
details of the everyday duties to be considered, such as the culti¬ 
vation, seeding, harvesting, hay-making, and manuring in connec¬ 
tion with the rotation proper. There is, however, apart from 
the course of cropping, the kind of stock to be kept, the further 
influence of climate on the cultivation of the land, and the 
adaptation of certain cereals and seeds suitable to the nature of 
the soil as well as climate. 
We will first allude to the Norfolk course of cropping as it was 
known upon its first introduction at the end of the eighteenth 
century, the rotation being (1 ) fallow for roots to be fed off on 
the land in part, and part fed off by bullocks at the homestead; 
(2) Barley or Oats ; (3) Clovers alternated ; (4) Wheat after one 
ploughing and manuring with yard dung, the roots being manured 
entirely with artificial and portable manures. In estimating the 
advantages of the four-course system, it must be considered when 
properly conducted as an improving system ; for we know that in 
certain parts of Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and some other counties 
the land is of a very thin, sandy, and flinty nature, resting upon 
chalk, and in various districts was originally merely rabbit warrens, 
or at the best poor sheep walks, or downs as they are sometimes 
called. By the adoption, however, of the four-course rotation, 
the roots being consumed by sheep on the land, and in part by 
bullocks in the boxes, these light and originally worthless tracts 
have been raised into valuable farms for the keeping of both 
sheep and bullocks in the winter months, and the growth of good 
crops of corn also, especially in those instances after having been 
clayed or marled. In fact when Barley is grown under the four- 
course rotation it is nearly sure to produce a good malting sample. 
Of roots we must state that they are very sure to produce 
abundantly, except in some severely hot summers, and even then 
the common varieties of Turnips will produce fair crops if sown 
late, for the autumn rains upon such soils have a very forcing 
effect; in fact fine crops of stubble Turnips are often grown after 
the Rye crop or early white Oats on that part of the root-lain 
intended for Mangolds in the next season on the root-lain. 
After being farmed as nearly as may be possible on the Norfolk 
rotation, the land will gradually improve in letting value as time 
goes on if the feeding of sheep and bullocks is carried out with 
judgment. Now this being the case is the cause of this course 
being in most cases adopted as the rotation to be carried out in 
the last two years of a lease, for its simplicity and its easily defined 
rotation is sure to leave the land in a fair state as regards crop¬ 
ping to be entered upon by an incoming tenant. This latter 
point is also of some consequence in the event of a home farm 
being leased or let off to an occupying tenant. So far as the 
home farmer is concerned in the management of such soils as we 
have named, the system is adapted to his position, for we have 
numerous instances in the competition for prizes for the best- 
managed farms given by the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
The Journal of the Society furnishing particulars of their manage¬ 
ment in several instances, states that the prize farms were conducted 
upon the four-course or Norfolk rotation of cropping, and at the 
same time remarking that the stocking with both sheep and 
bullocks and their feeding also was in accordance with the old 
Norfolk system, whereby the former consumed the roots on the 
land, but the latter under cover, and mostly upon the box system, 
both, however, having liberal allowances of cake and corn in ad¬ 
dition to hay and roots ; thus exhibiting the force of our pre¬ 
vious observation, that when properly carried out the Norfolk 
system is an improving one, and certainly calculated to add to the 
letting value. 
We are still alluding to light thin soils, and there was originally, 
and before the four-course came into practice, the five-course pre¬ 
vailed in the north-east part of Norfolk ; and we find that Mr. C. 
S. Read, who is a great authority upon all agricultural matters, 
but more particularly in the county of Norfolk, states—" In the 
second year the seeds were broken up in July, and make a bastard 
fallow for Wheat. One could imagine no worse preparation for 
Wheat on such lands. The ground could not be consolidated, 
and every facility was given for the swarms of winter annuals 
which infest such soils to spring up and smother the plant. The 
farm manure was wanted for Turnips, and a one-year ley left to 
its own resources grew but little Wheat.” The improved system is 
to use artificial manures for the root crop, and to apply the farm¬ 
yard dung one half to the Clover seeds in winter or early spring, 
and the other half on the one-year ley, ploughing it once for 
Wheat ; and by using the presser at the same time these light 
soils become firm, and once p'ou 1 iug only breeds no weeds. In 
connection with this practice it should be considered as to the 
necessity of sowing broadcast after the presser in preference to 
working the land and drilling, for upon these light soils, which 
are so apt to shrink after frosty weather throwing the Wheat 
plant out of the land, it is preferable to sow after the presser, 
because, not only do the plants retain a better hold upon the 
soil, but in the event of a dry summer they withstand drought 
better, the roots being in contact with the moist subsoil. 
Although the four-course system originated in the county of 
Norfolk, it must not be supposed that it is continued as a system 
adapted for the better and loamy soils, and to illustrate this we 
