YEOMAN. 



This tree grows of preference on gentle de- 

 tlivities, in a loose, deep, and fertile soil, and 

 IK usually accompanied by the red mulberry, 

 coffee tree, sweet locust, black walnut, and 

 other species whose presence evinces the rich- 

 ness of the land. It rarely exceeds 40 feet in 

 height and 1 foot in diameter, and in general 

 it does not attain even these dimensions. Its 

 trunk is covered with a greenish bark, which is 

 smooth instead of being furrowed like that of 

 most other trees. 



The leaves of the yellow-wood are 6 or 8 

 inches long on old trees, and of twice this size 

 on young and thriving stocks. They are com- 

 posed of two rows of leaflets, smooth, entire, 

 nearly round, and about an inch and a half in 

 diameter. The leaflets are 3, 4 or 5 on each 

 side, borne by short petioles, and surmounted 

 by an odd one, which is supported by the com- 

 mon footstalk. As in the button wood, the lower 

 part of the footstalk contains the bud, which 

 becomes visible in plucking the leaf. 



The flowers form elegant, white, pendulous 

 bunches, a little larger than those of the lo- 

 cust, but less odoriferous. 



The seeds of the yellow-wood also nearly 

 resemble those of the locust, and are con- 

 tained in pods that differ only in being a little 

 narrower. The seeds are ripe in the vicinity 

 hville about the 15th of Auu'iiNt. 



\ I'.iiMAN. A term applied to the first or 

 highest degree of cultivators in England. The 

 yeomen are properly freeholders, and such as 

 cultivate their own lands. This term has been 

 ; from various words by different au- 

 thor>. Dr. Johnson seems to incline to the 

 word genntn, Frisick, a villager; Fortescue de- 

 rives it from ir-moi, or i/i-nn-n, Saxon for a com- 

 ni.'iier. Sir Thomas Smith's definition of a 

 yeoman is, "a free-born Englishman who may 

 lay out of his own free lands in yearly revenue 

 to the sum of 40s." 



YEW TREE (Taxus). A genus of orna- 

 mental evergreen trees, well adapted for under- 

 wood, as they thrive under the shade and drip 

 of other trees ; they are also very ornamental 

 when planted to form hedges. They will grow 

 in any moist soil, but succeed best in loams 

 and clays. They are chiefly propagated from 

 seeds, which should be sown as soon as ripe ; 

 but can also be increased by cuttings formed 

 of either one or two years' wood, and planted in 

 a shady border in the beginning of April or end 

 of August. In England the common yew tree 

 (T. baccata} is the only indigenous species. 

 The trunk is straight, with a smooth decidu- 

 ous bark. Leaves two-ranked, crowded, linear, 

 flat, about an inch long, dark green. Fruit 

 drooping, consisting of a sweet, internally glu- 

 tinous, scarlet berry. The leaves are fetid and 

 very poisonous, and prove speedily fatal to 

 cattle accidentally tasting them when young 

 and tender. The berries have a sweet mawk- 

 ish taste, and may be eaten without danger. 

 The wood of the yew tree, being of extremely 

 slow growth, is hard and tough, formerly high- 

 ly valuable for making bows, but now chiefly 

 used for fine cabinet-work or inlaying. It 

 makes handsomer chairs than many exotic 

 woods. 



YOKF,. A f-ame of wood fixed with bows 

 148 



YOUNG, ARTHUR. 



over the necks of oxen, whereby they are coupled 

 together, and harnessed to the plough, &c. It 

 is sometimes written " yoak," and is composed 

 1. of a thick piece of wood that passes over 

 the neck, and is strictly called the "yoke;" 



2. of a bow, which encompasses the neck; and 



3. of the " wreathings," or " stitchings," that 

 serve to connect the whole. Besides these 

 parts, there are employed a ring, denominated 

 the " yoke-ring," and a chain for securing the 

 traces. 



YOKE of land. In England, the quantity of 

 land which a yoke of oxen can plough in a 

 day. Hence, in some parts of Kent, a little 

 farm, from its only requiring a yoke of oxen 

 to till it, is called a "yokelet." 



YOLK. See E, and WOOL. 



YOUNG, ARTHUR. A celebrated agricul- 

 tural writer and farmer; perhaps the most popu- 

 lar author on rural affairs that England or any 

 other country has produced. His character- 

 istics were great zeal, enterprise, and energy, 

 with a copious flow of plain and intelligible 

 language, which the meanest capacity could 

 readily comprehend; and although he pos- 

 sessed few claims to be ranked as a scientific 

 farmer, yet he succeeded by his labours in ex- 

 citing a general love of agriculture in the up- 

 per classes of his countrymen, which has, 

 since his day, never materially subsided. And 

 this feeling, although attended, through a want 

 of practical information, with considerable in- 

 dividual loss, has yet produced great public 

 advantages. It has been remarked, indeed, of 

 the writings of Arthur Young, that they pro- 

 duced more private losses and more public 

 benefit than those of any other author. A me- 

 moir of this extraordinary man was published 

 soon after his death by Dr. Paris, his friend 

 and medical attendant. 



His services to agriculture were important, 

 and they would have been still more valuable 

 if he had confined himself to the improvement 

 of the science of agriculture, and avoided al! 

 those many political and party themes of which 

 he was ever too ready to be the champion. 

 This morbid feeling he can ied with him to the 

 Board of Agriculture ; and, in consequence, 

 both Arthur Young and the board of which he 

 was long the chief spirit, experienced the same 

 fate, they obtained the support of only a sec- 

 tion of the farmers of England, and they much 

 too often laid themselves open to the charge 

 of being more intent upon the advancement 

 of the interests of their party than of those of 

 practical agri&ulture. Thus the very first sen- 

 tence of the first volume of the Annals of Agri- 

 culture, published in 1790, is as follows ; "The 

 parties of one country and the debility of an- 

 other having at last extinguished the torch of 

 discord ;" and the entire essay comprehends 

 hardly any thing else than a political survey of 

 the state of the kingdom, and its possessions, 

 fisheries, &c. It speaks with much zeal of the 

 French Revolution, union with Ireland, cus- 

 toms, exports, tonnage, produce of the taxes, 

 population, national debt, West Indian planta- 

 tions of Great Britain; indulge'. ^ all kinds 

 of visions ; gives a statement of what the edi- 

 tor would do if he were made a king, &c., &c.; 

 and hardly a page is reserved for practical 

 5G 1177 



