East Riding of Yorkshire. 
99 
" Beans. — 4 bushels per acre are sown broadcast. Produce in 
Ilolderiiess, 4 quarters; on the wolds (where, however, they are seldom 
cultivated) it does not exceed 2 quarters." 
Having thus endeavoured to trace out the successive steps 
which have been noticed in the culture of this Riding by the 
foregoing authorities, its present condition and the peculiarities of 
its agriculture must be proceeded with. 
First, of the Vale of York. — Less improvement is noticeable in 
the agriculture of this than of the other two divisions of the 
Riding, owing chiefly to two causes, viz. the inferiority of its soils, 
and also the difficulties and inefficiency of its drainage. 
With the exception of the warp soil lying adjacent to the river 
Ouse in Howdenshire, referred to by Mr. Strickland, and some 
limited oolite and gravel beds, the prevailing soils throughout 
this level are tenacious clay and blowing sand. 
Upon the Howdenshire warp soils (e. g. at Saltmarsh, Sand- 
liall, &c.) there is some extremely good farming. Upon this 
land for a considerable number of years the potato has been 
largely and profitably cultivated. In fact, upon the culture of 
this root the success of the course of cropping mainly depends, 
and therefore the partial destruction of it within the last two years 
has caused a most serious loss to the great potato-growers of the 
district. Their mode of cropping is thus : 1, potatoes; 2, wheat ; 
3, clover or beans ; 4, oats or barley. The preparation of the 
land for potatoes here is equivalent to a turnip fallow elsewhere, 
and a similar process is followed. The land is set out in ridges 
30 inches apart; and a heavy application of fold-yard manure is 
necessary to insure a crop. The time for taking up immediately 
succeeds the housing of the corn, and to the people of this dis- 
trict has all the importance of a second harvest. In a good 
potato year the produce per acre amounts to 400 bushels. 
Mr. Strickland remarks that, in Howdenshire and on the 
eastern bank of the Derwent, flax was grown in considerable 
quantities: it is still partially cultivated, but not so much so as at 
the time when Mr. Strickland's book was published. The state- 
ments on this subject made by Mr. Wells of Booth Ferry, and 
other extensive flax-growers, seem to intimate that the profit 
derived from its culture will hardly, on these soils at least, com- 
pensate for the exhausting properties of the plant. 
To the remainder of the tract of country now under considera- 
tion it is hardly possible to assign anything like a definite system 
of agriculture : it may, however, be said that, where clay prevails, 
the old three-fold course, viz. fallow, wheat, beans, is the adopted 
practice ; with such infringements of it as the farmer thinks he 
can with safety or profit introduce : for instance, oats are now and 
H 2 
