Norfolk four-course system
The Norfolk four-course system is a method of agriculture that involves crop rotation. Unlike earlier methods such as the three-field system, the Norfolk system is marked by an absence of a fallow year. Instead, four different crops are grown in each year of a four-year cycle: wheat, turnips, barley, and clover or undergrass.
Farmers in the region of Waasland pioneered a four-field rotation in the early 16th century, and the British agriculturist Charles Townshend popularised this system in the 18th century. The sequence of four crops, included a fodder crop and a grazing crop, allowing livestock to be bred year-round. The four-field crop rotation became a key development in the British Agricultural Revolution. The rotation between arable and ley is sometimes called ley farming.
