Benjen sat at the Stark table and listened to Ned talk, his opening speech had been good, rousing even, Benjen had felt himself be carried along with the tide of Ned's speech, had felt the enthusiasm and resolve to do everything in his power to help the North prosper as Ned wanted it too.
Now came the difficult part, the specifics, Ned took a sip of beer and continued "The first, and most basic problem the North faces is a lack of food, even with the land we have under cultivation we cannot feed ourselves. Farms in the north, and indeed all across Westeros, farm using the so called 'three field method', whereby the land is divided into three parts, one to grow grain crops, one to grow vegetable crops and a third is left fallow, both for grazing and to allow the land to recover. Each year these are rotated, and this is a tried a tested method of farming, well know and simple. While I was away fighting in the Rebellion I had my brother Benjen, along with Maester Luwin, carry out a trial with a different system that I had heard mention off while I was at the Eyrie. This method, called the 'Four Field System' works as follows – instead of dividing land up by three one divides it up by four, wheat, barley, turnips and clover. The turnips and clover can be used for fodder, or the turnips can be eaten, and the clover has the added advantage of actually improving the soil, along with the fact that you can use the clover as fodder in the ground, thereby allowing farm animals to fertilize the land with their droppings. In the two years of the trial the yield from the land planted was one in ten better than before, a small start but a significant one. For a change in planting a farmer gets an extra bushel of wheat in every ten that he expected, and for nothing. He also has more fodder for animals to be raised, thus more meat, milk, cheese, hides and the like. Maester Walys will distribute the necessary information to your Maestres so that you can start this way of planting for yourselves."
Grumbling broke out among the crowd, some voices sounded encouraged, others angry, Benjen could not tell from whom though as Ned continued "That is the start of it my Lords, more food for our people, healthier people, more children being born, more land to be opened up, more food to be grown, more food for people, more children being born...and on and on my Lords. We arrest the decline in the North here, NOW! But that is not all; there is much land that could be brought under cultivation but which sufferers from being cursed with the so called 'heavy soils', soils that are difficult to plough. A great swathe of the North, from the Rills to the Broken Branch is of this type of soil, difficult to farm and often left fallow because of this, our best soils are between White Harbour and Ramsgate, and these, along with some pockets to the south of Winterfell and on the Last River, produce most of our crops."
Ned paused and rummaged among the papers on the table, searching for a parchment before picking it up and continuing on "This is the 'heavy plough' its specially designed for ploughing up these 'heavy soils' it cuts into them deeper, it turns and folds over the soil for better drainage and allows one to turn over the soil and incorporate grasses and animal wastes into the soil. Again my brother Benjen and Maester Luwin have experimented with it, a half days ride east of here they have brought formerly unproductive land under cultivation, land which is of this 'heavy soil' type. There are several examples of this new 'heavy plough' available for you to see and inspect in the Great Courtyard, again your Maesters will have all the information about it."
Ned took the parchment and handed it to Lord Glover and asked him to pass it around when he was finished.
"The only other place in the North with good soil is in the lands of the Umber's, but they lost much of their best land when the New Gift was granted to the Night's Watch" Ned returned to his table and picked up a sealed scroll "This is a decree from King Robert Baratheon, First of his Name, returning the Lands formerly in the New Gift to House Umber!"
Uproar greeted this announcement; it took several minutes for things to calm down before Ned could speak again. "The Nights Watch has no need of the New Gift; it numbers no more than two thousand men!" That caused silence to descend like a knife in the Great Hall.
"Yes my Lords, two thousand men, the once great Nights Watch reduced to being able to hold but three castles along the Wall...The Nights Watch needs our help if it is to uphold its vows and be 'the shield that guards the realms of men'. My goodfather, Tywin Lannister has pledged ten thousand gold dragons to purchase arms and armour for the Nights Watch, he has also pledged that the Wandering Brothers of the Nights Watch will have first pick of all the jails in the Westerland's to help rebuild the Watch."
There was some rumblings at that, Benjen could not judge the mood, it seemed to be roughly evenly split on agreeing with Ned trying to strengthen the Nights Watch and horror over how precarious it had become.
"You all know my goodfather Lord Tywin, Lord of Casterly Rock and Warden of the West, and you all know of the wealth of the Lannister's of their gold, but I say this to you now "Gold is but for the mistress, silver is for the maid. And copper is for the craftsman, cunning in his trade. But Iron – Cold Iron – is master of them all! The North has vast amounts of iron, just waiting for us to exploit, and we now have the means to mine it, smelt it, and to work it on a scale never seen before, we will make the North a Land of Iron! There is a new smelter at a place twenty leagues south of here, a little village that is called Coalbrookdale, in the lands of Lord Cerwyn, that sits on the White Scar. The first examples of the new forges and smelters that will make Iron as common as clay have already been built. Iron my Lords, Iron and the blood to wield it! That will be the new strength of the North!"