96 
Report on the Farming of the 
especially of the Wolds, and that he laments that so much land of 
a promising nature should have been suffered so long to remain 
either as a sheep-walk or rabbit-warren. 
" Formerly," he says (vol. ii. p. 246), "the wolds, whether parcelled 
out in common field, or disposed in more entire properties, lay entirely 
open, excepting a few yards about the villages. The East Wold vale 
still lies in a state of common-field ; but on the higher wolds some 
spirited attempts have lately been made at enclosure. 
"Sir Christopher Sykes may, I believe, claim the honour of being the 
first successful planter on the wolds ; attempts had formerly been made, 
but without success : owing, perhaps, more to the smallness and thin- 
ness of the plantation than to any other mismanagement. 
" Sir Christopher Sykes, I am informed, is now contracting with a 
nurseryman for upwards of 500 acres of planting, to be finished in ten 
years ; an undertaking which does him infinite credit. 
" Should the time arrive when the higher swells shall be crowned 
with wood, and the intervening valleys be intersected with living fences, 
forming enclosures of 8 or 10 acres, the climature of the wolds will be 
rendered some degrees more genial than it is at present, and the pro- 
ductiveness of the soil double that which it has hitherto been." 
From this period may be dated the commencement of a better 
system of Wold husbandry. To Sir Christopher Sykes may be 
conceded the merit of having been, not only as Marshall claims 
for him, the first planter, but also the most extensive reclaimer of 
these wilds; for his plantations being continued from jear to 
year, till they amounted to nearly 2000 acres, not only afforded 
shelter to the cattle, and lietter climate to the corn, but also fur- 
nished materials for fencing ; and thus, in process of time, a 
subdivision of the unenclosed fields took place, and a better, 
though as yet imperfect, system of culture was introduced, which 
put an end to the barbarous open-field management. 
The stimulus also given to agriculture by the war-prices soon 
after this period was not without its influence on this part of the 
country, and caused a great portion of the sheep-walks to be 
converted from grass into arable land. The mode of conversion 
was, however, as rude as possible ; still rents were doubled, and 
the process went on ; yet, this process being one of exhaustion, it 
seemed as if, within a certain cycle of years, the Wolds were about 
to return to more than their original state of barrenness. 
With respect to rent Marshall says — 
" Upon the large farms, 6s. to 12s. per acre, the rent depends chiefly 
on whether the tenant has or has not liberty to break up old sheep-walk, 
with which the large farms mostly abound. No wonder landed gentle- 
men are so tenacious of their old grass-lands ; they are treasuries, whose 
keys they would be blamable in delivering up without a suitable con- 
sideration." 
Of turnips he says — 
