For sixteen years no one followed him in the use of the drill, though it was no new thing; and when it was adopted he reckoned its use spread at the rate of a mile a year.  Yet eventually he had his reward; his estate came to command the pick of English tenant farmers, who never left it except through old age, and would never live under any other landlord.  Even the Radical Cobbett, to whom, as to most of his party, landlords were, and are, the objects of inveterate hatred, said that every one who knew him spoke of him with affection.  Coke was the first to distinguish between the adaptability of the different kinds of grass seeds to different soils, and thereby made the hitherto barren lands of his estate better pasture land than that of many rich counties.  Carelessness about the quality of grasses sown was universal for a long time.  The farmer took his seeds from his own foul hayrick, or sent to his neighbour for a supply of rubbish; even Bakewell derived his stock from his hayloft.  It was not until the Society for the Encouragement of Arts offered prizes for clean hay seeds that some improvement was noticeable.  In Norfolk, as in other parts of England, there was at this time a strong prejudice against potatoes; the villagers of Holkham refused to have anything to do with them, but Coke’s invincible persistency overcame this unreasoning dislike and soon they refused to do without them.

Coke was a great advocate for sowing wheat early and very thick in the rows, and for cutting it when ear and stem were green and the grain soft, declaring that by so doing he got 2s. a quarter more for it; he also believed in the early cutting of oats and peas.  It was his custom to drill 4 bushels of wheat per acre, which he said prevented tillering and mildew.  He was the first to grow swedes on a large scale.[503] The famous Holkham Sheep-shearings, known locally as ‘Coke’s Clippings’, which began in 1778 and lasted till 1821, arose from his practice of gathering farmers together for consultation on matters agricultural, and developed into world-famous meetings attended by all nationalities and all ranks, men journeying from America especially to attend them, and Lafayette expressed it as one of his great regrets that he had never attended one.  At these gatherings all were equal, the suggestion of the smallest tenant farmer was listened to with respect, and the same courtesy and hospitality were shown to all whether prince or farmer.  At the last meeting in 1821 no less than 7,000 people were present.  His skill, energy, and perseverance worked a revolution in the crops; his own wheat crops were from 10 to 12 coombs an acre, his barley sometimes nearly 20.  The annual income of timber and underwood was L2,700, and from 1776 to 1816 he increased the rent roll of his estate from L2,200 to L20,000, which, even after allowing for the great advance in prices during that period, is a wonderful rise.  It is a very significant fact that there was not an alehouse on the estate, and in