XVI 

 YORKSHIRE ARABLE FARMING 



THE warp land of the Isle of Axholme lies partly 

 in Lincoln and partly in Yorkshire, and in the latter 

 county, across the Ouse, there is a considerable area 

 Howdenshire, over which the agriculture is of the 

 same type, arable farming, with potatoes and wheat 

 as the principal crops. William Cobbett, no mean 

 judge, after riding into Hull in 1830, enumerates 

 all the fertile land he knows in the south, and writes : 

 " Having seen and having ability to judge of the 

 goodness of the land in all these places, I declare 

 that I have never seen any to be compared with the 

 land on the banks of the Humber." In this opinion 

 Cobbett is mainly thinking of the warp, though he 

 does specifically include Holderness, the country east 

 and north of Hull, which is quite distinct, for though 

 it is still low-lying the surface is covered with gently 

 undulating glacial drifts, and true alluvial soils only 

 occur along the river side. Close to Hull the flat 

 country is mostly under grass, and in the alluvial 

 area near the mouth of the river and Spurn Point, 

 round about the district known as Sunk Island, 

 mustard and other seed crops are extensively grown ; 

 but Holderness proper is occupied with mixed farming. 

 The soils are strong enough to be the better for 

 an occasional bare fallow, and they are mostly in 



