1116 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



7022. EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE 819,200 acres of moderately wavey surface, intersected 

 with numerous deep winding vallies ; not remarkable either for its arable lands or pasturage ; but pro- 

 ductive of horses for the coach and saddle, and of the excellent Holderness breed of cows. {Leafhavi's' 

 General View, 1794. StricklamVs View, 1812. MarshaVs Review, 1812. Smith's Geological Map, 1821.) 



1. Geographical State and Circuinstances. 

 Climate of the wolds severe and variable ; N. and N. E. 



winds prevail in winter and spring ; in the vales milder ; 

 mild, but not very healthy, on the Humber; rain at Hull, 

 twenty-seven inches and a' half yearly at an average. 



Soil of the wolds calcareous loam ; of Holderness, fertile 

 clay and stiff retentive clay. On the banks of the Hurnber, 

 from Paul, nearly to S|)erm Point, there are thirteen or four- 

 teen thousand acres of warp-land, of a strong clayey loam, the 

 productiveness of which can hardly be equalled. 



Sunk Island on the Humber is a mociern creation by that 

 estuary : it (irst began to show itself about 1667, at ebb tide, 

 and as no man pretende<l title to it (it being a detached is- 

 land), a grant of it was made by the crown in the same year. 

 In 1787, 1600 acres of the land were embanked and under 

 tillage, producing a rental of 90U/. a year, with a chajiel 

 and several farm-houses erected on it. That part of Sunk 

 Island which was first embanked, was originally about two 

 miles from the shore, and many persons are still living who 

 recollect vessels passing between it and the mainland, to 

 which it is now united by a bridge across a narrow channel, 

 serving as a drain to the adjacent country. It contains at 

 present within the banks about 4700 acres, and twenty- 

 four families, and is continually increasing in size, an ex- 

 tensive tract having been recently embanked, with a proba- 

 bility of its being still further enlarged. 



MinernU. Chalk and a very hard shelly limestone, producing 

 a lime little valued either by the farmer or builder. Chalk 

 of the wolds much harder than that of the southern coun- 

 lie-;. Marl in many places. Gypsum in some places, but no 

 mineral veins or coal, and in many places not even clay for 

 bricks. 



2. Property. 



Less divided on the East Riding than in other parts of the 

 county ; perhaps less than -in most parts of England, which 

 arises a good deal from the nature of the county : one half of 

 wolds where land is held in little estimation, and occupied 

 in larger tracts ; the other a flat low country, partly rich and 

 clayey, and partly sandy and barren. Most of the families 

 have possessed their estates for many centuries, and some 

 from the Norman conquest: largest "15,000/. a year, ten at. 

 10,000/. a year. Only three noblemen have seats in this Riding. 



3. Buildings. 



Seventy-four manorial houses, of which twelve are going 

 to decay, nineteen let to tenants, or remain empty ; forty-one 

 occu))ied by their owners {Temp. Bliz.) ; ninety-two families 

 bearing arms resident in the county. 



Farm-homes generally good, excepting on the wolds, where 

 they are built of chalk, thatched, and miserably bad; gene- 

 rally in villages, excepting those built lately. 



Cottages more comfortable than in many places, generally 

 two rooms below and two bedrooms over them ; a disposition 

 in the proprietors to let their cottages go to decay. 



Village cow club. A plan for insuring cows having been 

 lately adopted on an extensive scale, and with striking suc- 

 cess in the north of Lincolnshire, from which it appears that 

 an average payment of about three half-pence ])er cow per 

 week, (or six shillings per year,) is fully adequate to rei>lace 

 the ordinary losses of cows by death ; it is proposed to insti- 

 tute a similar club in the contiguous parts of the Ea,st and 

 North Ridings of Yorkshire, with a view of securing to the 

 laborer and his family at a tnfling expense, the great bene- 

 fits of that useful animal, without his risking more than one- 

 sixth i>art of her value, upon certain conditions. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms in general small ; one or two of 1200/. per annum, 

 but from 200/. to 20/. more common. Lea.ses so rare that 

 the surveyor could not recollect of one, unless under suspi- 

 cious circumstances, where something incorrect is aimed at ; 

 some advantage intended to be given or taken : where either 

 the landlord wanted something more than customary from 

 the tenant, or the tenant was disinclined to trust his landlord : 

 great estates are let in full confidence in this Riding, where a 

 lea.se was never asked for, probably never wished for ; be- 

 cause the tenure is equally secure, and more permanent with- 

 out than with one. Many estates have been occupied by the 

 progenitors of the present tenants, during two, three, or four 

 generations. 



5. Implements. 



Waggons here of a bad construction ; but well yoked in 

 the German manner. The four horses are yoked two abreast, 

 in the same manner as they are put to a coach, two drawing 

 bv the splinter-bar and two by the pole; those at the wheel 

 drawing also by a swinging bar, which the wheel horses of 

 every carriage ought to do, as they thereby obtain considerable 

 ease'in their draft, and are less liable to be galled by the col- 

 lar than those which draw bv a fixed bar ; the driver then, 

 being mounted on the near sfde wheel horse, directs the two 

 leaders by a rein fixed to the outside of each of their bridles, 

 they being coupled together by a strap passing from the inside 

 of each of their l)ridles to the collar of the other horse. In 

 this manner when empty, they trot along the roads with 

 sajfety and expedition ; and when loaded, the horses being 



near their work, and conveniently placed for drawing, labor- 

 with much greater ease and eHect than when placed at length. 

 Were the waggon indeed of a better construction, the team 

 would be excellent. 



The pea.se hook, and the bean hook, both made out of 

 old scythe blades and used in reaping pease and beans, are pe- 

 culiar to this Riding; as was the lime burner's fork till lately. 

 (^eefig. .9i7 h,c.) 



The mniMiitif sledge is a useful implement for levelling the 

 small inequalities ot meadow and pa.sture land, and spreading 

 the dung dropped by the cattle. It is a frame of wood about 

 five feet square (the sides of which are about four inches thick 

 to give it weight and strength), having three bars of iron fix- 

 ed to the lower side, the points of which are thinned to sharp 

 edges. When in use, some thorns are drawn under the hinder 

 wooden bar, and above the middle one, to which they are fix- 

 ed by cords. If it is wanted to be removed from one field to 

 another, it is turned the other side up, which pres rves the 

 edges of the bars from injury. It is drawn by two horses, and 

 will go over a great extent of land in a day. 



6. Enclosing. 



The taste for this has been carried too far, and land enclosed 

 which has not and probably never will repay the expense. 



7. Arable Land. 



Two-thirds of the wolds and one-third of the rest of the Rid- 

 ing under the i)lough ; fallow, wheat, oats; or fallow, barley, 

 beans, common rotations. 



8. Grass. 



The inarshy meadows adjoining the Derwent, a few grazing 

 pastures m Holderness and Howden.shire, and the small garths 

 ot paddocks in the immediate vicinity of the towns and villages, 

 form the principal part of natural grasslands. 



The salt marshes on the outside of the embarkments are of 

 no great extent. Unless the mud is so elevated as to be con- 

 stantly above water for a few days at neap tides, no plants take 

 possession of the surface ; but when vegetation can go on, the 

 first plant which takes possession is thesalicornia or samphire, 

 and next the poa maritima, which in a short time covers the 

 surface with a close short sward. A few sheep are occasionally 

 put on it when not too much dirtied by the mud of the spring 

 tides. 



In latjing land to grass carawav and parsley sown among 

 it by some, to preserve the health of the sheep. ' 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 



Almost unknown, excepting among the higher clas.ses ; far- 

 mers rarely use any other vegetable than potatoes and turnips ; 

 cottagers cultivate their gardens with more care than the far- 

 mers. 



JO. Woodlands. 



Of no great extent in proportion to the Riding; extensive 

 plantations made on the wolds. 

 11 Improvements. 



Holderness drainage an extensive work of the kind on the 

 east side of the river Hull ; it extends over nearly l'^,000 acres, 

 and is managed by commissioners. Various other extensive 

 drainages. 



12. Live Stock. 



Holderness cattle, remarkable for their large size and abun- 

 dant supply of milk, prevail universally. This breed is suiipos- 

 ed to have been introduced from Holland about a centurv ago, 

 and improved by attentive management. The late Sir George 

 Stri*land the greatest modern breeder In the district. Ureed. 

 ing a principal ol>ject in most parts of the Riding, and feeding 

 in Holderness when the pastures are rich. 



Sheep formerly the Holderness breed, resembling that of Lin-" 

 colnshire and the Wold sheep ; now the Leicester and various 

 other breeds. 



Horses for the coach and .saddle, the grand branch of breeding 

 in this Riding, and as many or more i)roduced in proportion 

 to its extent than in any other. But it is allowed by all that 

 the breed has of late much degenerated, owing to the inatten- 

 tion of the farmers. About twenty years ago a cross of blood 

 was introduced, bv which, though good saddle horses were pro- 

 duced, the coach horse was lost. This error discovered, an op- 

 posite and still more pernicious one was i>roduced by the intro- 

 duction of heavy black stallions from Lincolnshire. These 

 produceil a mongrel breed which will not be got rid of for 

 several generations. In breeding, some castrate the foal while 

 .suckling, and think it a preferable practice to that of the North 

 Riding. 



Rab!)ifs. About twenty warrens, containing together probably 

 10,000 acres. 



13. Political Economy. 



Not more than 1 10 miles of turnpike road in the whole 

 Riding ; few of these good, and the cross roads and lanes verr 

 bad; manufactures few ; white lead, glue, glass, iron-foundry, 

 oil-mills, cordage, sailcloth, patent whalebone, brick, tile, pot- 

 tery, &c. at Hull. White lead, and Spanish white for whitening 

 prepared from chalk, at Hessel. Howden coarse canvas for 

 nail bags; near Driffield spinning and weaving tow : other ma. 

 nufactures near York. Several agricultural societies ; one for 

 books and implements at Howden. 



7023. DURHAM. 582,400 acres of surface, in some places mountainous and in most places hilly ; the soil 

 in great part poor ; the agriculture generally approaching tlie best model, that of Northumberland, and the 

 coiuity distinguished by the Durham or Teeswater breed of cattle, and by its lead and coal mines. The ce- 

 lebrated farmer and breeder, Culley, was a native of this county, and farmed here as well as in Northumber- 

 land. {Granger's General View, 1794. Baily's General J'iiw, 1810. Marshal's Review, 1818. Smith's 

 Geological Map, 1824.) 



^_ ,.,_.. J _, , I middle or end of June. General time of harvest from the bc- 



; \. Geographical State and Circumstances. ginningof September to the middle of October. 



Climate fine and mild in the lower districts, but on Crossfell, Soils principally clay loam and peat ; the latter prevails in 



the highest land in England, being .1400 feet above the le- the western part of the county or lead mine district ; there i 



vel of the sea, snow frequently lies from November fill the I a tract of calcareous soil in the interior of the countv. 



