East Riding of Yorhshire. 
107 
is most in request, rape is found wanting ; and upon tlie shallow 
Wold soils it is in vain to attempt the growth of it. A crop of 
peas has in some instances been taken as a substitute ; the same 
objection, however, applies to peas as to tares on the Wolds, that 
the following corn-crop is inferior both in quantity and quality. 
Perhaps the best practice, where it has been found necessary to 
rest, land fiom clover, is to take a turnip-crop after the oats or 
barley. Supposing, therefore, that a Wold farm consisted of 200 
acres of arable land, the course to be pursued would be this : — 
[Field No. 1, 50 acres, Wheat. 
No. 2, 50 „ Turnips, hybrids, and swedes. 
1st Course \ ,, No. 3, 50 „ Barley or oats. 
ja 25 acres. Clover-seeds. 
[b 25 acres, Turnips, white. 
No. 4, 50 
f Field No. 1, 50 acres. Wheat. 
„ No. 2, 50 „ Hybrids and swedes. 
-..I* v>vu.oi,v ,, No. 3, 50 ,, Barley or oats. 
I M 4 t^n 1 ^ acres. Clover-seeds. 
I " ^' \a 25 acres. White Turnips. 
So that, as the four-fold course goes round, by inverting the half- 
shift a and b in field No. 4, the land has only to sustain clover 
once in eight years. 
It may be objected that this is in effect a violation of the very 
principle contended for — that if this course were pursued year 
after year, the soil would become tiirnip-sick, just as, according to 
common parlance, it has become clover-sick. It must be borne 
in mind, however, that this shift — or, as it may with more pro- 
priety be termed, make-shift — is only applicable to the thin Wold 
soils. Upon the deeper parts other means, such as we have 
already pointed out, may be provided ; upon the thin soils, how- 
ever, this system has been tried for some years in many cases, and 
with good effect. Chemical reasons might be adduced to show 
that of all vegetable products turnips are the most readily sup- 
plied with the food that is needed for their growth. This has 
been shown by Mr. Huxtable and others ; and in this view prac- 
tice seems to coincide. 
To the turnip cultivation of this district more than to any other 
cause may be attributed its increased products and the gradual 
amelioration of its soils. Mr. Thorp states * that within twenty- 
five years the quantity of wheat grown in this district had been 
doubled, and of barley quadrupled ; and in proof of this he quotes 
the returns made by the Driffield Navigation Company of the 
» Page 105, Yorkshire Agricultural Society's Transactions, anno 1841. 
