876b 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 1 9 
English Farm Scenes in 1891. 
THATCHED STRAW STACKS : BEAN-FED PORK. 
Yorkshire, the “ Garden of England ; ” the English farmer 
of to-day ; crops, stock and prospects ; American fann¬ 
ers may learn from John Bull; roads that convenience 
travelers ; what if England could grow com ! 
Last October I landed at Hull, the principal seaport 
of Yorkshire, from the large, iron steamship Buffalo, 
of the Wilson line. The cargo consisted of 5,000 tons 
of American products, including 38,000 bushels of wheat 
and many tons of flour, beef, pork, butter, lard and 
tallow, besides six electric street cars for the great 
cloth manufacturing city of Leeds. Hull has a popu¬ 
lation of 200,000, and is the third commercial city of 
the United Kingdom ; but its greatness consists in its 
many enormous and substantial docks, extending 
almost to the center of the city, packed with steamers, 
sailing ships and craft of every description. Owing to 
the fact that the tide on the River Humber, on the 
north bank of which Hull is built, 20 miles from the 
German Ocean, rises and falls from 18 to 20 feet, the 
water gates leading to and from the docks are opened 
only at a certain stage of the tide as it rises, and are 
closed again at the same stage as it falls. I n the inter¬ 
view of an English Farm. 
On my arrival at Driffield, about 35 miles north of 
Hull, the first thing 1 did, after securing lodgings, was 
to go in search of a photographic gallery to find a 
picture “taken on the spot,” of a farmer’s domicile 
surrounded by a dozen or more stacks, so that an Amer¬ 
ican reader could form an idea as to how the English 
grain stacks are constructed and thatched to protect 
them from the continuous four months of rain and 
snow storms. The view I obtained, see Fig. 120b, 
shows only two stacks out of a group of 14—just 
enough to give an idea how a group of 40 in four 
rows, 10 in a row, looks to one not accustomed to such 
display of systematic farming. Each wheat stack is 
from 35 to 40 feet in height and 30 feet in diameter and 
contains the cut product of from eight to ten acres. 
Premiums are awarded by the agricultural societies 
for the best constructed stack within the parish where 
the fair is held, and the lucky wight who wins the 
prize is a “bigger man than old Grant,” in the estima¬ 
tion of the manor-born Englishman. The vehicle in 
the roadway repi*esents a good specimen of the two¬ 
wheeled dog-cart, trap and gig which the landed pro¬ 
prietors and well-to-do tenant farmers ride in. There 
are two seats on which four can ride, back-to-back. 
It is heavy and strongly constructed, for service more 
be more palatable to a denizen of the “ Hub ” ? Such a 
pork-and-bean combination would require no oratori¬ 
cal eloquence to proclaim its superior alimentary 
qualities—it would speak for itself. 
Wheat and Stock Foods. 
The English count weights by pounds, stones and 
quarters: 14 pounds make one stone; 36 stones or one- 
fourth of a ton is one quarter. Four quarters of 
wheat to the acre is considered a fair yield, and that is 
the average this year. Oats are a very productive crop, 
from seven to eight quarters to the acre. The straw 
too is good—four feet in length. I have no data as to 
the yield of beans, peas and barley to the acre. Very 
little hay is cut in this part of the kingdom. Ten 
stacks of grain can be counted to one of hay, and what 
is secured has lain so long in the field exposed to the 
rain and bleaching wind that it looks as brown as pea- 
straw, and is in my opinion about as worthless. IV hen 
I was a boy and worked in the hay-field in northern 
New York, and feasted on honey robbed from the 
bumble-bee’s nest, all the grass cut before 10 A. M., and 
exposed to a bright July sun, was cured and taken to 
the barn before sundown the same day. Six months 
afterwards that hay contained all the freshness, fra¬ 
grance and nutriment it held on the day it was taken 
VIEW OF THATCHED ENGLISH STRAW STACKS AND FARM COTTAGE. Fig. 120b. 
val all the vessels that want to do so must enter or de 
part. Once the gates are closed, those inside are 
wholly unaffected by the ebb and flow of the tide in 
the river. The same is the case with regard to the 
grand Liverpool docks. 
Pleasant English Landscape. 
For about 20 miles all around the town the land is 
low and as level as a Western prairie, and in favorable 
seasons very productive. This broad area presents to 
the foreign traveler a very pleasing landscape view. 
The fields are laid out generally in squares of from 15 
to 20 acres each, I should judge, so that the country 
has the appearance of a huge checker board; each 
field is usually inclosed by thorn hedges, which are 
annually trimmed, so that the entire country has the 
appearance of a series of gardens rather than of grain 
and vegetable fields, meadows and pastures. A very 
interesting addition to the prospect is made by the 
numerous cozy and strongly constructed cottages and 
farmers’ homes and barns, partly surrounded by stacks 
of wheat, oats, barley, peas and beans. Frequently 
one sees from 20 to 40 stacks built as straight and uni¬ 
form in shape as line and plummet could make them, 
with thatched roofs to secure the grain from damage. 
There seems to be a rivalry between the farmers as to 
who shall have the best looking group of stacks. Then 
again, to further enhance the view, there are numer¬ 
ous lofty windmills, each with its four wings 40 to 50 
feet in length, revolving fast or slow as the fickle winds 
furnish the motive power. All combined make a 
trip through this part of Yorkshire decidedly interest¬ 
ing to an American traveler. 
than beauty. A pleasing part of the picture is the 
piece of public road. The highways in this part of 
Eng'land deserve special notice. Level, firm, wide 
clean ; it is, in short, a luxury to ride over them. 
Under the large trees on the road-side between the 
villages, are iron settees six to eight feet in length, 
where the weary traveler can rest in the shade or find 
a shelter during a passing shower. The English are 
good travelers, and those possessed of property and 
money, male and female, prefer to walk six miles to 
paying sixpence for a railroad ticket. If they had to 
walk over the rough thoroughfares so common in the 
American States, I think they would secure a ticket 
even at the cost of a shilling - . 
A Great Bean-Eating Country. 
Beans are raised here in large quantities and fed to 
horses, cattle, sheep and pigs—the mammoth 500- 
pound hog is called a pig here. I am of the opinion that 
American horses and other stock, except sheep, would 
have to be brought to the starvation point before they 
would eat beans as a substitute for corn. Why the 
difference? Why cannot a Bay State Berkshire pig be 
fed and fattened on beans as well as a Yorkshire Berk¬ 
shire ? What’s sauce for one place should be so in 
another. What is wholesome, palatable and fat-mak¬ 
ing for a porker in England must produce the same 
results in America ! Then again, what a luxury the 
Bostonians would secure from pox-k that had been fed 
on bean-meal exclusively! Just think of “Boston 
baked beans,” that universal Bostonian Sunday break¬ 
fast dish, seasoned with pork, possessing all the flavor 
and nourishment of the aromatic bean ! What could 
fi'om the field. Straw, turnips, to ans, peas, linseed 
and cotton-seed cake supply the plat e of hay. Indian 
corn (called hei*e “ maize ”—wheat is called “ corn”) 
with small kernels, ears about six inches in length, 
imported from Calcutta, India, is used to some extent 
for animal food. Indian bread, johnny-cake and pan¬ 
cakes are unknown as wholesome articles of family 
food—a luxury I greatly miss. Even oat-meal, so 
much x’elished in America and Scotland, is entirely dis- 
cai’ded in Yorkshire. To Dr. Johnson’s definition of 
oats as “ the food of horses in England and of men in 
Scotland,” a waggish Scotchman retorted, “ That’s 
why Scotland has such good men and England such 
good horses ! ” There is more truth than poetry in the 
repartee. 
Next to wheat the turnip is the largest and most im¬ 
portant crop grown here. The swede is hardy and re¬ 
served for spring feed. The Purple Top are the most 
thrifty; some weigh from 12 to 14 pounds, and yield 
from 15 to 20 tons to the acre. The mangel-wurtzel is 
a favorite for cows. Some of the large land owners 
have from 2,000 to 3,000 sheep, which are fed largely 
on turnips. Thousands of sheep can now be seen feed¬ 
ing in the turnip fields. Beans fed to horses are 
cracked into halves and quarters; those fed to cattle, 
sheep, calves and pigs are ground to a fine meal. Lin¬ 
seed and cotton-seed oil cakes are used in large quanti¬ 
ties. There are several cake mills in Hull, one in Bev- 
ei-ly and one in Driffield. In addition to the home¬ 
made product, large quantities are imported from for¬ 
eign countries. One warehouse in Driffield now con¬ 
tains in one lot 100 tons in sacks shipped from Minne¬ 
sota and Wisconsin, all sold to three farmers in the 
