Farming of the North Riding of Vorlishirc. 507 
even and smooth. The harvesting is performed in the same mode 
as that of the wheat, except the sheaves are not hooded. The 
yield varies from 5 to G quarters per acre. 
Following the barley arc the 
Seeds. — These grow rapidly after the barley is cut and carted, 
and are usually eaten but little in the autumn. In the following 
spring they are broken, if for pasture, by the sheep, about the 
middle or end of April, or sometimes allowed to be free till the 
month of May, On these they are allowed to roam at liberty ; 
but within tlie last few years, instead of exactly putting into each 
field as many sheep as will be calculated to consume it, they place 
in one field nearly the entire stock of the farm, and eat the whole 
bare. In a few weeks they remove them into another un1;)roken 
field, and consume it in the same way, going in this manner over 
every field, and commencing when finished with the first field, 
which has sprung up sweet ; and thus, instead of soiled and re- 
jected and overgrown grasses, the whole are kept sweet, vigorous, 
and young, throughout the season. Others, however, "stint" or 
put into a field the stock it is finally intended to carry, and leave 
them to their fate to eat the food left for them or let it alone. By 
which mode soever the field is depastured, if the sheep have been 
employed in this process, it is in excellent condition for the growth 
of a corn crop, and even the annual weeds are, to a certain extent, 
germinated, and destroyed by the land resting for so long a period 
and being stocked with close-feeding animals. 
In other cases where red clover is sown for mowing, it is seldom 
eaten in the spring, and is usually mown about the 30th of June, 
allowed to lie in swath for some three or four days, as the sun is 
scorching or otherwise ; the clover which has fallen between the 
swaths raked up, and then the process of making is commenced ; 
and we are not aware that it is carried on with so much perfection 
in any part of the kingdom as in the North Riding of Yorkshire. 
So soon as the surface is dry, a 
portion, about a yard in length, 
of the swath is taken, and the 
surface folded inwards, and the 
whole rolled into a kind of 
cone. A piece of rye-grass is 
pulled out of the top and tied 
round the head of the " ruckle," 
as it is called, and set in rows 
to admit it being easily carted. 
Thus while the sun and air 
thoroughly dry the whole mass, 
the rain, should it come, descends oyer the inclined surface of 
the cone, and as the large mass of leaves the clover possesses 
2 L 2 
