The  Yorkshire  Farm-Prize  Competition , 1883. 
507 
Wales,  more  extensive  than  many  German  dukedoms,  and  very 
nearly  as  large  as  modern  Belgium.  The  extent  of  the  whole 
county  is  5979  square  miles.  The  turnpike  and  highway  roads 
have  an  aggregate  length  of  nearly  11,000  miles. 
Yorkshire  does  not  depend  on  its  extent  alone  for  its  great- 
ness. It  may  fairly  be  said  to  he  rich  in  all  that  makes  a 
county  famous.  It  abounds  in  historical  associations.  The 
ancient  Britons  had  a town  at  York.  For  three  hundred  years 
York,  or  Eboracum,  was  the  great  Roman  city  in  Britain.  The 
Caesars,  then  Emperors  of  the  world,  during  part  of  that  time 
held  their  court  at  York,  which  we  are  told  was  the  scene  of 
imperial  marriage  festivities  as  well  as  royal  obsequies.  The 
district  suffered  greatly  for  its  determined  opposition  to  William 
the  Conqueror.  All  down  through  the  ages,  whenever  wars  in 
England  are  chronicled,  wre  almost  invariably  read  of  battle- 
fields in  Yorkshire. 
Not  less  interesting  is  this  district  to  the  student  of  eccle- 
siastical lore.  The  special  glory  of  York  is  its  cathedral.  Well 
may  the  natives  be  proud  of  York  Minster,  it  is  a structure 
of  almost  unrivalled  grandeur  and  dignity.  Strangers  driving 
through  the  county  are  again  and  again  delighted  by  dropping 
down  on  the  ruins  of  an  abbey  surrounded,  as  they  generally  are, 
by  the  richest  of  green  pastures.  What  visions  rise  to  the  eye 
of  the  imaginative  mind  round  the  remains  of  those  once  magni- 
ficent piles  ! 
The  modern  history  of  the  county,  though  more  prosaic  than 
that  of  the  remote  past,  is  not  less  famous.  The  arts  of  war 
have  fortunately  given  place  to  those  of  peace.  The  manu- 
factures of  Yorkshire  are  now  of  world-wide  importance,  and 
on  their  prosperity  depends  very  much  the  welfare  of  British 
agriculture.  The  woollen  mills  of  Leeds,  Bradford,  Halifax, 
Vi  akefield,  Huddersfield,  &c.,  have  not  participated  in  the 
general  revival  of  trade  throughout  the  country  to  the  extent 
that  the  exigencies  of  the  English  flock-masters  would  seem  to 
demand.  We  are  told  that  the  changes  of  fashion  have  created 
a demand  for  fine  short-wools,  such  as  are  grown  in  the  colonies, 
and  that  the  English  long-wool  is  at  present  an  almost  un- 
marketable commodity.  Certain  it  is,  that  the  present  price  of 
wool  is  a sore  subject  with  many  English  farmers,  more  especially 
those  who  have  old  stocks  on  hand.  So  long,  however,  as  the 
mills  keep  going,  the  industrial  population  creates  a demand  for 
other  products  of  the  farm,  which,  though  it  does  not  compensate 
the  farmer  for  the  fall  in  the  price  of  wool,  maintains  that  of 
other  agricultural  commodities. 
The  immense  coal-fields  of  the  West  Riding,  said  to  extend 
over  not  less  than  600  square  miles,  have  no  doubt  been  the 
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