50S 
Farming of the North Riding of Yorkshire. 
rentiers It peculiarly liable to injury from the wet, this process 
is most valuable, and in few places is it secured in better con- 
dition. In a dry time it is carted directly from the "ruckles" 
to the stack ; in a damp one they are sometimes to pull down 
before they are carted off, and made into " pikes," or small heaps, 
of from two to three cart-loads each ; here the clover is allowed 
to ferment, and in a week or two put into the stack. 
There are few districts where more difficulty has been experi- 
enced in obtaining red clover than has occurred here of late years. 
The value of the crop induced many cultivators to bear up against 
the clover-sickness, crop after crop, removing the red clover as 
far from its like as possible, by alternating with the small seeds; 
but this has been of no avail, and it is now found that the inter- 
vention of a crop of beans or tares is indispensable, if it is at all 
attempted. Beans are the greatest favourite, and these extending 
the period to eight years between the grasses enable the farmers 
to obtain good crops of red clover. The beans are usually sown 
in ridges and manured and well hand and horse-hoed, but they 
are found on those light soils to create a difficulty in keeping the 
land clean. 
No other remedy for the clover-sickness has been discovered, 
and whatever may be its cause, neither lime nor any dressing yet 
attempted has been found to remedy the difficulty. 
I have now followed the cropping and the mode of manage- 
ment through the whole of the course, and though this may be 
said to present the general aspect of the farming pursued, still 
many farmers deviate in some particulars from this rotation, and 
some very successful cultivators transpose the order of the crops. 
The Messrs. Outhwaite, of Bainesse, who obtained the prize for 
the best cultivated farm in the North Riding, or at least in a por- 
tion of it surrounding Richmond, within a radius of 25 miles, 
invariably sow the wheat after turnips, and the barley after seeds. 
Most of the wheat is spring corn, as a matter of course, and a 
considerable portion of the turnips is carted home, with a view to 
improve the manure, and hence a frequent dressing of some 
artificial fertiliser is given to the corn crops. The only dis- 
advantage appears to be in the greater danger there is of 
getting in the corn as the season advances, and a premature frost 
has occasionally defeated, to a certain extent, their plans. It 
must, however, be confessed that there are few farms which will 
bear so close an inspection, and if the season is less favourable 
for securing the croj)s, the workmanship is such as to overcome, 
to a great extent, many of these difficulties. 
Many thousands of acres on this series are considered so dry 
as not to need draining ; still large portions of the district, ])rin- 
cipally grey sand, are almost inundated with land-springs. 
