portance, on account of the employment afforded by the various operations which it requires. In the above-mentioned district, indeed the poor are entirely supported by this manufacture. The Suffolk hemp is superior in strength and quality to that of Russia; the cloths woven from it are of various degrees of fineness and breadth, from 10d. a yard, half ell wide, to 4s. and 4s. 6d. ell wide. It makes also very good huckaback for towels, and common table-cloths. The low-priced hemps are a general, wear for servants, husbandmen, and labouring manufacturers; those from 18d. to 2s, a yard, for farmersand tradesmen ; while the finer sorts from 2s. 9d. to 38. 6d, are preferred by many gentlemen for strength and warmth to other linen.

Saffron was formerly cultivated to a great extent in Suffolk. This oriental plant was first grown in England in the reign of Edward III. and was much used by our ancestors. In 1366, no less than eighteen pounds of saffron were consumed in the household of Margaret, Countess of Norfolk, at Framlingham Castle, in this county. It long coutinued to be a considerable article of cookery, as well as medicine; but from the revolution in manners and fashions, its use has greatly decreased. It was chiefly raised in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, though now its culture is confined chiefly to the last. Several pieces of land in this

county are still named from it: at Fornham St. Genevieve, is a piece called the Saffron Yard; another at Great Thurlow, the Saffron Ground; and a piece of glebe land near Finningham Church-yard, is denominated the Saffron Pans, or Panes, probably from the slips or beds in which the plants were set.

Among the manures employed by the Suffolk farmers, the species called crag may be noted as peculiar to this county. It is composed of dry powdered shells, and formerly produced a very great improvement in that part of the maritime district called the Sandlings, south of Woodbridge, Orford, and Saxmundham, by be ing spread on the black ling heaths with which that whole tract was formerly covered. Its effect, however like that of lime has often been found to decline on repeating the application.

Irrigation, one of the greatest improvements in modern agriculture, is very little practised in Suffolk, where large tracts of poor and unproductive arable land are to be seen in almost every parish, at least in the vicinity of every stream, below the level in which' water might be made to flow. Some spirited individuals, indeed, have within these few years, sent for men from other counties, where the practise is understood, to irrigate their meadows; and it is sincerely to be wished that their example may be generally followed.

If Suffolk has not acquired such high reputation for its live stock as some other counties, this must be ascribed rather to the want of attention in the breeders, than to the want of a capability of improvement in the animals themselves. The cows have long been celebrated for the abundance of their milk, which considering their size, and the quantity of food, far exceeds the produce of any other race in the island. Though the peculiar breed of this county is spread all over it, yet a tract of twenty miles by twelve, is more especially the seat of the dairies. This space is comprehended within a line drawn from the parish of Coddenham to Ashbocking, Otley, Charsfield, Letheringham, Hatcheston, Parham, Framlingham, Cransford, Bruisyard, Badingham, Sibton, Heveningham, Cookly, Linstead, Metfield, Wethersdale, Fressingfield, Wingfield, Hoxne, Brome, Thrandeston. Gislingham, Finningham, Wrestrop, Wyverston, Gipping, Stonham, Creeting, and again to Coddenham. The cows of Suffolk are universally polled, as the farmers sell all the calves that would have horns reserving only such as have none for stock. The size is small, few rising, when fattened, to fifty stone, at fourteen pounds each. The characteristics of this breed are :—a clean throat, with little dewlap; a thin clean snake head; thin legs; a very large carcase; a rib tolerably springing from the centre

of the back, but with a heavy belly; back-bone ridged; chine, thin and hollow; loin narrow; udder large, loose, and creased when empty; milk-veins remarkably large, and rising in knotted puffs to the eye; a general habit of leanness; hip-bones high and ill covered, and scarcely any part of the carcase so formed, and covered as to please the eye accustomed to fat beasts of the finer breeds. It is nevertheless remarked, that many of them fatten remarkably well, and their flesh is of a fine quality. The best milkers are in general red, brindled, or of a yellowish cream colour. The quantity of milk yielded by one of these cows is from four to six gallons a day. Some years since cabbages were universally cultivated as an article of food for cows, far superior to hay, but this practice as elsewhere observed, is now on the decline. Another peculiarity in the Suffolk management, is that of tying up these animals in the fields, without house, shed, or roof to cover them. A rough manger is formed of rails and stakes; the cows are tied to posts, about three feet from each other, and have at their heads a screen of faggots. Litter is regularly given, and the dung piled up behind. For cows before calving this is found better than suffering them to range at will; the shelter of the hedge and dung keeping them sufficiently warm without any cover.

In those parts of the county where the cattle do not consume all the turnips, it is common to buy black cattle at fairs from north country drovers for the purpose, Some of these are Irish, others Welch, but the greater part Scotch, of different breeds. These after being fattened, generally continue their journey to supply the markets of the metropolis.

The Norfolk, or, as it might with greater propriety be denominated, the Suffolk breed of sheep, since the most celebrated flocks are found about Bury, is diffused over almost every part of the county. For the quality of the mutton, as long as cool weather lasts; for tallow; for fatting at an early age; for the fineness of the wool, which is the third in price in England; for endurance of hard driving; for hardness and success as nurses, this race is deservedly esteemed. These excellencies are however counterbalanced by their voracity, a want of tendency to fatten, resulting from an ill-formed carcase, and a restless and unquiet disposition; a texture of flesh that will not keep in hot weather so long as that of South Down sheep, and a loose ragged habit of wool. In consequence of these bad qualities, the breed has been nearly changed in the last twenty-five years, the South Down now being every where prevalent. This new race was unquestionably introduced by Arthur Young, Esq.