PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE EAST RIDING. 27 



directly. As in Holderness above described, there is also 

 much artificial drainage of Derwentland by "dykes" and 

 "canals," and larger ponds of surface water such as that 

 which was found on Walling Fen a hundred years ago 

 (Camden's "Britannia") do not now exist. Near the Humber, 

 however, there are extensive marshy tracts that are also 

 being reclaimed, both by natural and artificial means. 



As bearing directly on the vegetal capabilities of the East 

 Riding taken as a whole, as well as being indirectly a guide 

 to what area the botanist may expect to find still dominated 

 by native plants, the following figures, taken from the Journal 

 of the Board of Agriculture (1900), may be of some use. 

 During the past year the three cereals, together with clover 

 and permanent pasture, occupied the following areas : — 



Wheat 64,254 



Barley 



Oats 



Clover and Rotation Grasses 

 Permanent Pasture 



73,623 



95,231 



92,232 



211,220 



636,560 



Taking the total area of the riding as 750,055 acres, and 

 deducting the above large acreage of cultivated and pasture 

 ground, it leaves for towns, villages, gardens, roads, 

 commons and wastes, and water-ways, 213,495 acres. Of 

 commons and other ground, usually marshy and in the vicinity 

 of streams, the area probably does not consist of more than 

 5000 acres, and this area is continually diminishing to such an 

 extent, indeed, that, in the not very distant future, the only 

 plant study. available will be economic, or one of plant im- 

 migration, including the cereals, valuable to man, and the 

 aliens, colonists, and others, that are introduced therewith. 

 To prevent the disappointment that has frequently been ex- 

 perienced in our rambles throughout the East Riding, it may 

 be well to give a word of caution against accepting such 

 statements as are still perpetuated in recent guide books, to 

 the effect that "hundreds of acres in the parish are heath or 

 waste land ; " for example, of Weal, near Beverley, where 

 there is now scarcely a yard not under severe cultivation. 

 The summaries appended will be found fairly exhaustive and 

 corrective of previous mistakes on this head. 



In brief, the geological facts hinted at in the preceding 

 may be summarised as under ; and if the table be used with 



