East Riding of Yorkshire. 
95 
the aids which science has at length imparted to agriculture, have 
caused his sanguine expectations to be more than realized. It 
can be proved that in the very district to which Sir Digby Lcgard 
refers, the produce of wheat has been doubled, that of oats has 
been increased five-fold, of barley six-fold ; and that wherever 
skill and capital have been applied to these uncultivated hills, rent 
has been advanced even as much as twenty-fold.* 
The notice taken by Arthur Young of the agriculture of other 
parts of the Riding is not so copious, and therefore a brief 
extract may suffice : — • 
" I remarked the whole way from York to Beverley that they used 
many oxen in their husbandry works ; all the waggons I met had two 
oxen and two horses in them. At Barmley Moor the adjoining moors 
are common to the houses around them ; would let, if enclosed, at 3*. 6rf. 
or 45. an acre, without further improvement, and might be made, 
with nothing but good husbandry, worth 10*. an acre. The soil in this 
country is chiefly sand and gravel ; their course of crops 
".1. Fallow. 
2. Wheat. 
3. Barley. 
" Between Market Weighton and Beverley I observed several warrens, 
which must raise the wonder of every traveller to see such good land 
left to so woeful a iise ; the turf is exceedingly rich and fine, and the 
plentiful crops of thistles scattered about it prove the natural goodness 
of the soil ; the thistle is so luxuriant and exhausting a vegetable, with 
so strong and penetrating a tap-root, that it is scarce ever found on had 
soils." 
The progress of improvement, however, so much desired by 
Mr. Young and his correspondent, was tardy. The principles 
were recognised, but as yet there was no general adoption of 
them. Capital was not abundant ; and we must remember that 
prices were not, at that time, stimulative of agricultural enter- 
prise : for we find, a few years later, viz. in the year ] 788, in 
Marshall's ' Rural Economy of Yorkshire ' (to which we have 
before alluded), a very accurate and elaborate account of the 
husbandry then practised in the eastern parts of the county. 
* The extent of surface occupied by the chalk formation is about 249,000 
acres. The property-tax returns of 1846 show that the rental of this acreage 
is at present 255, 378/., being an average of somewhat under 20s. 6c?. per 
acre. The rent, however, varies much in the different divisions, e. g. : — 
Average Rent 
per Acre. 
" ■ 0 
On tlie wold part of Bainton Beacon division 
„ „ Buckrose . 
„ „ Dickering . 
„ „ North and South Hunsley 
„ „ Holme Beacon . 
„ „ Bishop Wilton Beacon . 
£1 1 
0 17 
1 0 
1 8 
1 6 
0 16 
