NORFOLK.]

EMBANKMENT OF MARSHES.

173

quantities as it can be manufactured; for it is not injured by frost, and receives no damage by being left in the ground. After being washed, the roots are cut with a small guillotine machine, and then kiln-dried; 12 to 15 tons, the produce of an acre, drying to about one ton, in which state it is sent to London. The price this year has ranged from 157. to 237. a ton. Last year it was not more than 107., and did not pay, as the manual labour in the cultivation of the crop, and the expense of drying, &c., amount to 5l. a ton. At the present price it pays well.

In the eastern division of the county, between Norwich and the sea, lies a great extent of fine land. Along the hollows the waters of the Bure and Yare find their way to the sea at Yarmouth, passing many thousand acres of marsh land, of which an immense extent is still unreclaimed. Windmills are chiefly used for pumping out the water from those marshes which have been embanked. After a marsh has been embanked and pumped dry, the soft spongy soil consolidates, and subsides several feet below the level of the river. Ditches are formed through it, which convey the water to one point, where, by means either of a steam-engine or a windmill, it is pumped over the bank into the river. The whole cost of embanking, ditching, and erecting a steam-engine, is said not to exceed 107. an acre in situations at all favourable for the operation; and as at such an outlay a worthless and unwholesome marsh may be converted into rich grazing ground, it is surprising that so much of this yet remains to be done, in a county so celebrated for its agricultural progress as Norfolk. If the new Government drainage loan can be applied to this purpose, probably it could not be laid out in a more profitable manner.

At Horning, in this district, we visited the extensive grazing and arable farms of the Messrs. Heath. On their marsh farm, 700 acres in extent, they keep during the summer 400 bullocks and 700 sheep. Having large arable farms adjoining the marsh, the stock is wintered on them and turned out to the marsh as soon as the grass is ready, where part is fattened and sent direct

174

MESSRS. HEATHS' GRAZING FARMS.

[NORFOLK.

to Smithfield from the grass, and part is brought on to be finished in the yards as prime fat for the Christmas show. The best polled Galloway Scots are grazed here, as they have been by the Messrs. Heath for a long period of years, but the quality now sent to Norwich is reckoned very inferior to what it used to be some years ago. They are, therefore, now going more into Herefords and Welsh runts, both of which, in the order just mentioned, they reckon superior for their purpose to any other breed. Having land of very rich fattening quality, they purchase animals which are nearly fat, to finish them; and their great aim is to get stock of the best quality of its breed, and to "dwell on it," as such is sure to pay, and to pay most for the last month of its keep. In the yards the cattle are not treated so profusely to cake as in some other parts of the county, a larger proportion of roots being given to them. Those, however, which are being prepared for the Baker-street show are fed without stint. They are beautiful specimens of their several breeds, Hereford and Galloway.*

On their arable lands, which are of fine quality, dry and friable, the Messrs. Heath do not restrict themselves to the four-course, or even to an alternation of white and green crops. They frequently take wheat after wheat, or oats after wheat, or barley after wheat; and find that by liberal treatment of the soil they can do so without injury to it, and with manifest advantage to themselves. In the Blofield Hundred, we found the same practice followed by Mr. Tuck on his own property; and were informed that in all cases where the land is farmed by its owner, or where a rigid adherence to rotations is not enforced, the four-course is scarcely ever adhered to. On the farms just mentioned, the appearance of the soil and the crops indicated clean cultivation and a high state of fertility.

The marsh lands of East Norfolk are of very various fertility. For the first 8 or 10 weeks cattle thrive and swell out greatly

Both specimens subsequently gained the highest prize of their class at the Smithfield Club Show in 1850; the Hereford ox being reckoned the finest fat ox ever exhibited.

NORFOLK.]

LABOURERS.

175

upon them, but after that they do not continue to progress in the same way; in fact, they seem to require a change of food. This may, perhaps, arise from the nearly uniform character of the natural marsh herbage, which in that respect differs from the natural herbage of a rich meadow containing a great variety of grasses, early and late, the one springing up as the other begins to fade.

The average number of labourers employed at present on a light land farm of 1,000 acres has been ascertained, by comparison of 10 different farms in West Norfolk, to be,

Men able to do Men of inferior Lads above 16 Boys under 16

Women.

6.25

The wages of labourers in Norfolk are at present 8s. a week; in some places a reduction to 7s. is spoken of. A great proportion of the work on farms, however, is done by task work or contract, and the rate of wages, therefore, does not afford any correct estimate of the condition of the peasantry. Task work will generally bring larger pay to the labourer, but this is more doubtful where the farmer resorts to contract, Hand hoeing, and other light operations of husbandry, which can be carried on by children, are sometimes paid for by contract, a man engaging to do what is required for so much, and employing all the children he can collect, in gangs, to get through with it. The evils of such a state of things are obvious. The boys and girls, thus brought together from considerable distances, frequently do not return home at night, and sleep in stackyards or barns, or wherever they can find shelter. Another point connected with farm labour in Norfolk is the employment of women in the fields, which some of the most intelligent agriculturists here strongly condemn. They contend that it has a most demoralising effect, causing women thus employed to lose all feeling of self-respect, rendering them bad housewives when married, and unfit, from want of experience, to exercise that strict economy in expenditure, and to provide those small fireside comforts

176

LAW OF SETTLEMENT EXTENDED.

[NORFOLK. which are so necessary in a labourer's wife. It is further said to be very questionable whether, even with the low wages paid to them, they are employed remuneratively to the farmer, as they are generally slow and indifferent workers. These objections apply to the regular employment of women in field labour, not to their assistance in harvest time.

An association had been formed at Docking, which distributes prizes, to the amount of 1207. annually, to successful competitors in ploughing, stacking, mowing, and other operations of husbandry, for the purpose of encouraging expertness in the industrial processes of the labourer. Prizes are also awarded for good conduct, for knitting done by the labourer's wife and children, and for various other objects calculated to stimulate the mind of the peasant, and to elevate the character of his employment. Though the association has been only a few years in existence, it has already been productive of much benefit, and of an interchange of good feeling between employer and employed. An attempt was made some time ago at Burnham to associate the farmers and principal people of the locality with the labourers in the formation of a benefit club, for the support of the latter in sickness, and to defray their funeral expenses when they die. The plan, however, failed, the labourers themselves refusing to co-operate in such an object.

The law of settlement is felt by many of the Norfolk farmers to press unfairly upon some parishes, both as respects the comfort of the poor and the inequality of the rates. To obviate this, the Docking Union have, by private arrangement, extended the settlement of their labourers to the whole Union, with very beneficial results. The disputes between parishes have thus been terminated, and the labourers of the Union are fully employed, and at a rate of wages rather higher than those of the adjoining districts. The listless indifference of the labourer, who trusted to his parish to give him either labour or support, is being overcome, as he is now at liberty to go to any parish in the Union where his labour may be most in request.

LETTER XXI.

THE FEN COUNTRY.

EXTENT OF FEN COUNTRY

-EARLY AND PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENTS 66 TWO KINDS OF FEN LAND BLACK THE MOST FERTILE AND REMUNERATIVE AND THE LOWEST RENTED MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP AND CATTLE -DETAILS OF FEN FARMING- ADVANTAGE AND EXPENSE OF CLAYING BLACK LAND — course oF HUSBANDRY ON DUKE OF bedford's eSTATE AT THORNEY -AVERAGE CROPS RENT AND RATES -CONDITION OF LABOURERS DETAILS OF FARMING IN THE CLAY DISTRICT OF THE FENS DRAINAGE DEFECTIVE AVERAGE CROPS- USE OF CAKE AND GUANO RESULT OF AN APPLICATION FOR A REDUCTION OF RENT.

BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE, April 1850.

THIS extensive district, which drains into the Wash, comprises portions of six counties, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Lincoln. It is estimated to contain 680,000 acres, forming a continuous plain 70 miles long by 20 to 40 in breadth. From the background of these counties, five large rivers find their way to the sea through this plain, — the Ouse, the Nene, the Cam, the Witham, and the Welland. Great works have been formed to keep the rivers to their channels, that they may not again overflow and convert to a marshy wilderness the fertile region rescued from them by the enterprise and ingenuity of man. The works begun by the Romans were after many centuries continued by the monks; the elevated spots, still called the " islands," or "highlands," which appeared above the waters when this great plain was submerged by the winter floods, having been occupied and cultivated by them. In 1630 the reclamation of the fens became a matter of systematic enterprise; Francis, Earl of Bedford, with 13 gentlemen adventurers, having then undertaken to drain the Bedford Level," on condition that they should have 95,000 acres for their

N