Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, this valuable root was
cultivated among us only in gardens or other small spots, for culinary
purposes; but Lord Townshend, attending King George the First on one of
his excursions to Germany, in the quality of secretary of State,
observed the turnip cultivated in open and extensive fields, as fodder
for cattle, and spreading fertility over lands naturally barren; and on
his return to England he brought over with him some of the seed, and
strongly recommended the practice which he had witnessed to the adoption
of his own tenants, who occupied a soil similar to that of Hanover. The
experiment succeeded; the cultivation of field turnips gradually spread
over the whole county of Norfolk; and in the course of time it has made
its way into every other district of England. The reputation of the
county as an agricultural district dates from the vast improvements of
heaths, wastes, sheepwalks, and warrens, by enclosure and manuring--the
fruit of the zealous exertions of Lord Townshend and a few neighbouring
land-owners--which were, ere long, happily imitated by others. Since
these improvements were effected, rents have risen in that county from
one or two shillings to fifteen or twenty shillings per acre; a country
of sheep-walks and rabbit-warrens has been rendered highly productive;
and by dint of management, what was thus gained has been preserved and
improved even to the present moment. Some of the finest corn-crops in
the world are now grown upon lands which, before the introduction of the
turnip husbandry, produced a very scanty supply of grass for a few lean
and half-starved rabbits. Mr. Colquhoun, in his "Statistical
Researches," estimated the value of the turnip crop annually grown in
this country at fourteen millions; but when we further recollect that it
enables the agriculturist to reclaim and cultivate land which, without
its aid, would remain in a hopeless state of natural barrenness; that it
leaves the land so clean and in such fine condition, as almost to insure
a good crop of barley and a kind plant of clover, and that this clover