H'est Ridiiif/ of Yorkshire. 
297 
this formation, 'i'lio farm contains 520 acres ; 400 being arable, 
and 120 grass. The general rotation is turnips, barley, seeds, 
wheat ; varied by 20 acres each year, out of the 400, being 
subjected to the following cultivation. — After the wheat the 
stubble is cleared, manured, and sown with tares, which are cut 
for the horses the following spring. The land is then prepared 
and drilled on the flat with stone turnips (manured with about 
10 bushels of bones per acre), which are eaten on with sheep. 
And the following year it is prepared and sown in the same way 
with swede turnips, manured in a similar manner. The wheat 
crops are always manured with rape-dust at the rate of about 
1^ quarters per acre. Mr, Charnock says, he finds guano on 
this soil does not answer for corn crops, and but very indifferently 
for turnips. He has grown good crops of turnips with nothing 
but sulphuric acid mixed with the ashes of the burnt weeds. Red 
clover has been grown here for 14 years, and in the adjoining 
township of Ferrybridge for 30 years, without the land becoming 
what is commonly called clover-sick. It is also worthy of especial 
notice, that the whole of this farm, although the soil is within a 
few inches of the limestone shale, has been subsoiled and trench- 
ploughed with the greatest manifest advantage — even to the 
doubling of the produce. Previous to this operation the crops 
were burnt up with a very moderate degree of drought ; but 
during the last two dry seasons, not a failing spot has been visible 
in the corn crops. 
There is in this locality the cultivation of one plant which, 
although of limited use, may be properly noticed here, inasmuch 
as it seems to be grown wholly on the limestone soil of this forma- 
tion. I allude to licorice, which, as every one knows, is peculiar 
to the neighbourhood of Pontefract, and requires a considerable 
depth of soil to produce it in perfection. For the information of 
those who are unacquainted with it, I may state that in general 
appearance it very much resembles a bunch of young ash sap- 
lings growing in slender upright twigs of four or five from the same 
root, to about 2 feet in height. It is the roots only that are used ; 
and as these are generally from 2 to 3 feet in length, an idea 
may be formed of the depth of soil necessary for their perfect 
growth. This suitable thickness of soil is met with at the side 
and foot of those numerous short rising grounds surrounding the 
town of Pontefract ; and it is pretty manifest that the excess of 
depth has arisen either from the soil slipping down from the rise 
above, or from artificial causes. The mode of management too 
favours the necessary depth : when first planted it is set in a toler- 
ably deep trench, and is subsequently earthed up like celery to a 
height of 18 inches and 2 feet in the last year of its growth. It 
is the practice to plant cabbages in the furrows, which, from the 
VOL. JX. X 
