100 
Farming of Yorkshire. 
the hedges having for miles quite disapjieared. The consequence 
of the inundation will prove most destructive to the lowland 
farmer ; the unusually rainy season had done much injury in 
retarding the sowing of the wheat crop, which will now be 
rendered quite impossible ; many thousands of acres will thus be 
thrown under spring crops. The aftermath in the grass-lands will 
be spoilt by the deposit of sand and mud, and the cattle will be 
totally dependent upon the scanty root-crops. Several stooks arc 
floating down the stream ; one farmer alone being said to have 
lost upwards of 20 acres of oats. In the marshes several beasts are 
reported as having been found drowned." Means are being taken 
to remedy the evil under which this district labours : on the 1st 
of December in last year, at an influential meeting of landowners 
held at Howden, the following resolution was unanimously 
passed : — " That the renewal of the Commission of Sewers for 
the limits of Howdenshire and the west parts of the East Riding 
(the last Commission having expired on the 12th of July, 1843) 
would be of considerable benefit and advantage to the owners of 
land situate within such limits and their tenants." 
We must not close our remarks on the landlords' improvements 
without noticing the liberality shown and the encouragement 
given to the Agricultural Societies during the last 12 years. 
These societies have deservedly enjoyed the patronage of the public. 
Their meetings are the proper places for the enterprising farmer 
to gather, as it were, into one focus the choicest specimens of his 
farm ; there he can with just pride refer to the improvements he 
has made by his skill and ingenuity, and point out to his fellow 
countrymen and countrywomen what honest and laudable in- 
dustry can accomplish. There he meets his landlord under cir- 
cumstances flattering to both ; and the landowner does wisely in 
supporting such institutions. But here we must pause. When 
leaving the show-yard they meet in the dining-hall to exchange 
their congratulations, are we reminded of the palmy days when 
these societies were young? Are they true to the cause for 
which they have met ? It is true there is no protection to sup- 
port, nor free trade to denounce, but is there not found a dearth 
of information on those scientific or practical questions on which 
the tenant expects to get some suggestions, if not instruction, 
from his landlord ? The days of these exhibitions are numbered 
if they are allowed to pass off in stale allusions to electioneering 
topics. We wish to see them made the ch.annels for communi- 
cating the experience of improving landlords and tenants^ — the 
fitting occasion for recording what has been done by others for 
the encouragement of younger, but not less aspiring, followers in 
the ])ath of agricultural improvement. 
Of late years the practice of giving a prize for the best-managed 
