PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE EAST RIDING. 2^ 



soarrie and dry grass, and sheep doe not like it till such tinie 

 ifit bee well nipped with frostes" (Farming Account Book, 

 written 1^41 J Surtees Soc. Pub., vol. 33), and m another 

 ;^^;c?he sp\;ks of " Wolde barley that chanceth to bee very 

 +Vn;r, " as if it were not unusual for it to be so. Ana me 

 gen^rarcharacre? of the upland ground is still the same 

 for the late Edmund Riley, who long farmed ^30 acres ot 

 S; Wolds \t Kiplingcotes^ stated - .-idence g^ven be o.e 

 the Royal Commission on Agriculture in 1894. that there was 

 very Httle land laid down to grass on the Wolds, and that if 

 Tt be laid down after two or three years "it will scarcely keep 

 a sheep an acre, after the third year it is worthless. And 

 some' dea of the value of chalk-land from the farmers point 

 rf view may be gathered from Mr. Riley's estimated average 

 ?entTer acre, about 17s. Still, little of the surface ot 

 the Wolds is not unde/ cultivation, but it is only by high 

 farming and the comparatively great facilities for importation 

 !.f^nH stuffs that farming is at all remunerative. The one 

 llZilTrTpeX^^^^^^^ is^responsible for the lack of luxuriant 

 ^egetaTio^n, eithe'r wild or cultivated, is that already referred 

 to namelv, the great porosity of the chalk. , ,, v 



Furthe , the fact last mentioned explains why there is 

 almost a complete absence on the Wolds of any surface 

 drrna-e There are no streams even in the dales Ponds are 

 absent'except where artificially lined with clay, and no district 

 suSrs morTfrom seasons of drought. The water which fal s 

 ^^^ainXks immediately, and after it has been filte-d in its 

 downward passage, reappears only ^'■^""l^^^^l^Y'i^^t „^ 

 Wolds in springs, which give rise to streams irngatin, 

 Holderness and the tract west of the Wolds. 



The extremely porous nature of the chak formation on 

 the one 'hand, a'nd' the clayey character o the h.wer and 

 subiacent strata on the other, tell upon plant life in quite 

 opSe ways. The complete absence of anything like bogs 

 or marshes on the Wolds, and the extreme porosity of 

 chalk make this an excellent area for the study of xerophilous 

 Srv losing) vegetation ; whilst the numerous springs which 

 occur all round their base afford damp alluvial patches 

 ('bottoms '0 that yield many of the most interesting hygro- 

 philous or subhygrophilous plants. 



Ill The Plain of York (part of). -The third physio- 

 graphLfSivifion of the East Riding -f ^es the^ho le 

 area (200000 acres) to the north and west of the Wolds 

 "nd is deX^ated in part Pickering Carrs and the Plain ot 



