Wed Riding of Yorkshire. 
293 
stone is so great as to be perceived at a considerable distance." 
The peculiar property of the lime from this formation, and 
which is very generally and liberally applied, is no doubt the 
primary cause of this fertility. Possibly too, on the lower grounds, 
this may be aided by the frequent floods distriljuting in solution 
some portion of those properties which the lime possesses. The 
fertilizing effect of the water issuing from the rocks on this 
formation is very observable wherever springs break out, and are 
suffered to impart their virtues uncontrolled over the surface. 
A rich exuberance, greatly exceeding both in colour and quantity 
the surrounding herbage, is the invariable result. The water 
which flows from the famous intermittent spring near Settle, 
across the high road and over a portion of the adjoining field, 
attests the properties it contains for the edification of the observ- 
ant passer-by. 
I have thus endeavoured, as succinctly as may be, to describe 
the leading geological features of the Riding, and to make the 
reader acquainted with the character of their respective sods. 
And if, within such a compass, it has been found necessary to 
pass over some of those gradations in quality which, as evei-}body 
knows, exist in soils on the same stratificati(m, I shall not, never- 
theless, I trust, have failed to convey a tolerably correct idea of 
the various soils of the West Riding. 
The peculiarities of the agricultural management is the next 
portion of the subject to be considered, and this we purpose doing 
in the same order of rotation in which the soils have been noticed. 
When it is remembered that within the limits of the coal forma- 
tion are situated all the populous manufacturing towns of the 
county, it will not be thought singular that little or no general 
system of cultivation should be pursued beyond that which may 
be deemed the best for securing the greatest amount of mar- 
ketable produce in the shortest time. AVithin the influence, for 
instance, of Leeds, Sheffield, Huddersfield, Bradford, Halifax, 
Barnsley, and Wakefield, every occupier adopts that rotation 
which he esteems most suitable to his own immediate require- 
ments and those of the locality in which he is situated, unless 
he is confined by agreement to a particular course. The more 
abundant supply of manure which these places afford admits of 
his indulgmg in every variety and excess of cropping with less 
chance of injury to the land; for, however injudicious in many 
instances the succession may be, it will easily be conceived that 
by hard mucking the condition of the land may be maintained. 
The proportion of grass-land around all the places we have 
named very much exceeds the arable; and although some of it is 
rendered very productive, yet it has always appeared to me that 
it is generally much neglected, and not unfrequently deprived of 
