510 Farming of t lie North Riding of Yorkshire . 
perty by these judicious and well -arranged improvements. One 
great characteristic of the whole is, that he improved for pay and 
not for fancy. In cutting his drains, he sometimes encountered 
land-springs so powerful that no barricading of the sides nor any 
precautions within the drain could prevent the sides from falling 
in. To remedy this disadvantageous state of things, he carried 
on three parallel drains at the same time, and when this over- 
whelming rush of water came upon one drain, a tile was filled 
with hay or straw and placed perpendicularly in front of the last- 
placed tile, to prevent the ingress of sand, and it was left to flow 
on, and a parallel drain carried on until another similar spring 
broke out, and so many taps acting on the spring at the same 
time materially reduced the tendency to fill by abating the general 
power of the stream . 
A remarkable instance in this district of the astonishing effects 
of improvements was on the Catton estate, purchased and effected 
by Mr. John Rob, of Thorpfield. In the year 1842 he com- 
menced on 82 acres of grey sand, covered with a shallow stratum 
of peat, and growing little beyond moss and heather, and inun- 
dated by land-springs. Under the impression that it was totally 
unfit for any attempt at cultivation, some 35 years before, it had 
been planted with oaks, larch, and Scotch fir, at a cost of 6/. per 
acre ; and to place the trees in a condition something approaching 
to safety, open ditches were cut so as to leave the trees in " lazy 
beds;" so wet and sterile, however, was the sand that some 32 
acres of the whole had to be re-planted twice before they could 
be induced to exist, and even after so long a period several were 
not larger than walking-sticks. 
After stubbing the trees the whole land was dug over some 
9 or 10 inches deep, thus thoroughly incorporating the peat and 
the sand, at a cost of from 4/. to 6/. per acre, labour being cheap 
that winter, and in the same season drained with tiles and soles at 
from 3 feet 7 inches to 3 feet 10 inches deep, according to cir- 
cumstances and capacity of fall. Occasionally the drains passed 
over patches or strata of clay, and in all cases the tiles were 
covered with heather and filled in with sand. At first attempts 
were made to fill in with the clay, but the water was not found 
to percolate, and the whole was thrown out again, and sand 
brought to fill in the drains. The cost of draining was 4/. 17*. 
per acre. 
Part of the improved land was sown with oats in order to get 
the mass somewhat pulverised, as the roots and heath held the 
sand pretty firmly together ; but the whole was nearly worthless 
and did not grow a crop equal to the seed sown. The remainder 
was ploughed and harrowed to break the lumps, and lime at the 
