East RidiiKj of Yorkshire. 
121 
filled, will never again be empty. The large one in Sledmere 
Park was apparently little affected by the drought of 1847, a year 
in which less rain fell than in any year of the present century. 
Of Chalking. — The use of chalk as a top-dressing, which ex- 
tensively prevails in other parts of the kingdom, is not unknown 
on the Wolds. It has, within the last 10 years, been applied to 
parts of the deep Wolds, and has been found beneficial in correct- 
ing the so-called sourness to which these soils are liable. On 
the northern range of the Wolds, viz. on that long range which 
extends almost unbroken from Settrington Beacon to Hun- 
manby, the crops are found to suffer much from two causes ; first, 
from a noxious weed, locally termed Perry (Spergula arvensis), 
which so infests the corn-crops as almost to destroy them, and 
also from the well-known disease, which attacks turnips, called 
Fingers and Toes, In both these cases chalking has been found 
completely efficacious: from 80 to 100 cubic yards per acre are 
laid on in the autumn or winter, dug from pits in the centre 
of each field, and not taken from any great depth, so that the pit 
can afterwards be filled up, and the land again cultivated. It is 
found desirable that the chalk shall be dug up at a time when it 
is most saturated with water, that the frost may the more readily 
act upon it and pulverize it. 
Live Stock. — Sheep. — The Wolds have, no doubt, from time 
immemorial, been considered a sheep-breeding district ; and it is 
probable that the quality of the animal fed and bred upon it was 
proportioned to the prevailing condition of the district : for we 
find, according to Arthur Young, in the year 1777, when open 
downs and pastures were its characteristic, that the Wold breed 
of sheep was a small, hardy, compact animal, accustomed to 
travel far for its food, and producing a short, thick, close fleece of 
wool, which enabled it to resist the cold of the climate ; that 
when fat (which was not till four years old) it weighed 12 or 
14 lbs. per quarter, and the fleece weighed 3 lbs. at a medium, 
worth, at the price of the period, about 2s. 
Subsequently an attempt was made to increase the size and 
wool of the animal by introducing a cross from Lincolnshire : the 
two races, however, were so dissimilar in qualities, that the ad- 
mixture of blood did not succeed, and the breeders soon found 
out their error, and they substituted the Leicester for the Lincoln- 
shire ram. By this means they improved the wool and produced 
a more correct form, with a greater aptitude to fatten. At the 
present day the breed of Wold sheep may be said to be essentially 
Leicester. That this breed is thought to be the best suited to the 
district may be inferred from the fact that the oldest and most 
eminent ram-breeders (among whom may be named Sir Tatton 
Sykes, of Sledmere, arid Mr. George Robinson, of Carnaby) 
