white crops and two years pasture, and he dug up and brought to the
surface the rich marl which lay under the flint and sand, so that
clover and grasses began to grow. So successful was he in this that in
1796 he cut nearly 400 tons of sainfoin from 104 acres of land
previously valued at 12s. an acre. He increased his flock of sheep
from 800 worthless animals with backs as narrow as rabbits, the
description of the Norfolk sheep of the day, to 2,500 good Southdowns.
Encouraged by the Duke of Bedford, another great agriculturist, he
started a herd of North Devons, and, fattening two Devons against one
Shorthorn, found the former weighed 140 stone, the latter 110, and the
Shorthorn had eaten more food than the two Devons. However, a single
experiment of this kind is not very conclusive.

The ploughs of Norfolk were, as in many other counties, absurdly
over-horsed, from three to five being used when only two were
necessary; so Coke set the example of using two whenever possible, and
won a bet with Sir John Sebright by ploughing an acre of stiff land in
Hertfordshire in a day with a pair of horses. He transformed the bleak
bare countryside by planting 50 acres of trees every year until he had
3,000 acres well covered, and in 1832 had probably the unique
experience of embarking in a ship which was built of oak grown from
the acorns he had himself planted.[502] Between 1776 and 1842 (the
date of his death) he is said to have spent L536,992 on improving his
estate, without reckoning the large sums spent on his house and
demesne, the home farm, and his marsh farm of 459 acres. This
expenditure paid in the long run, but when he entered upon it, it must
have seemed very doubtful if this would be the case. A good
understanding between landlord and tenant was the basis of his policy,
and to further this he let his farms on long leases, at moderate
rents, with few restrictions. When farmers improved their holdings on
his estate the rent was not raised on them, so that the estate
benefited greatly, and good tenants were often rewarded by having
excellent houses built for them; so good, indeed, that his political
opponents the Tories, whom he, as a staunch Whig detested, made it one
of their complaints against him that he built palaces for farmhouses.
At first he met with that stolid opposition to progress which seems
the particular characteristic of the farmer. For sixteen years no one
followed him in the use of the drill, though it