Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF NORTH WALES. 



1131 



eotta^a for a cottage farm, and also plans of farms of differ- 

 ent skes, adapted to such cottages. , , , , 

 The coUUiitfann liouit {Jig. 808.) contain* a kitchen (o), bed- 



808 



room or parlc 



. (fc), pantry (c), barn-floor (</), two bays (e 



and f), cowhouse (if), calving place and calf house (h), pigsty 

 (0, and stairs {k) to garret and bedrooms. ^ , . 



One roa^c /<inn for tlie same house, and nme acres of land, 

 contains seven small enclosures (fit;- 809 .). including the gar- 

 den. One for six acres, contains six enclosures (/) mcludmg 

 the garden. 



a 809 h 



y^^-^ry..'i!^--^'ft5J .-3*-^i^^ JiS^.^?'?^ 



object of the farmers is to convert their hay and graafi, as much 

 as much as possible, into butttr and cheese. 



In the hilly parts of the afore-named counties, and in Angle- 

 I sea, Caernarvon, and Merionjdd, their peculiar province is to 

 rear cattle, to be sold lean to the graziers of other districts. 

 There are but a few acres of land that will fatten cattle ; the 

 vales of the Severn and Vyrnwy in jMonmouthshire, the banks 

 of the Dee in Flintshire, and the vale of the Clwyd in Denbigh- 

 shire, are the principal places where the pastures afford suffi- 

 cient nutriment for tJiat purpose. 



7. Gardens. 



Much wanted for the cottagers, especially in Caernarvon and 

 Merionethshire. Too many poor cottagers have not as much 

 as a leek or a potatoe, except what they either beg or buy. In 

 the greater part of the district, the planting of orchards would 

 be thought a very wrong application of the soil. On the bor- 

 ders of England are some orchards ; and in plentiful years, a 

 few farmers make either cider or perry for their own beverage. 



8. Woods. 



Have been i'bundant in former times, especially in Anglesea ; 

 now very scarce there and in Caernarvonshire ; more in Den- 

 bighshire, especially round Chirk Castle, Wynnstay, Erthing, 

 V'ale of Clwyd, &c. Extensive young plantations made m 

 these counties especially at Wynnstay and Lord Fenrhyn's. 

 A great deal of woods, and various young plantations in Meri- 

 onethshire, and much timber, wood lands, and planta- 

 tions in Montgomeryshire, which will long be the best 

 wooded coimtv in IVorth Wales. Proprietors planting 

 upon a large scae, and not raising trees from seed in 

 their own nurseries, formerly used to jjrocure seedlings 

 of larch, firs, and pines, &c. from Scotland; but ow- 

 ing to their heating in close* bundles, and otherwise 

 damaging upon the road, not above one-fourth, and fre- 

 quently not above one-eighth, the number, could be ex- 

 pected to grow. They are now more given to encourage 

 ( nurserymen at home, and nurseries are accordingly esta^ 

 ' i,ii.:V..^ ir% .i;fcn>iit tiarfs nf thp district. " One and two. 



3. Occupation. 



Largest farm of cultivable land about 600 acres, on the 

 mountains 1000 acres and upwards, at one shilling, or one 

 shilling and sixpence per acre: size on the increase, and ad- 

 mitted to be f^ivorable to wealth by the reporter, who adds 

 " yet that wealth should be valued, not in proportion to its 

 national aggregate, or quantity in the abstract, but as it is 

 widely and generally diffused. An analogy exists between 

 monopoly in all its forms, and a macrocephaloas consti'.iition, 

 which never can jjossess the energy of a body symmetrically 

 proportionate. 



Farmers, properly so called, are, as we may naturally ex- 

 pect themjto,be, rather too tenacious of old customs. Itis, how- 

 ever, illiberal to charge them with obstinacy, in delaying the 

 adoption of pretended improvements; for, as it is not all gold 

 that glitters, neither U one half of the patent implements, and 

 machines, or one-tenth of the ivritings of visionary theorists, 

 better than lumber and trash ; for which the farmer should not 

 throw awav his hard-earned money, before they are put to the 

 test of experience, by those who have opulence enough to bear 

 disappointment ; and who, from the advantage of superior 

 education, may be better quaUfied to form a judgment of the 

 probable etfects. Show the farmers their true interest, and, in 

 general,' their minds are as open to conviction, and as suscep- 

 tible to reason, as any other class of men whatever. 



Leaset out of repute. It cannot be denied that leases have 

 done gwKi in Scotland. We are, therefore, driven to the ne- 

 cessity of supposing, that the Scotch and Welsh tenantry are 

 very different kinds of beings. The circumstance that renders 

 the Welsh leases ineffectual, is the want of capital ; and what 

 enhances the evil of this want is, the ignorance of many farm- 

 er in the right application of whf t small capital they have. By 

 tilling too many acres, they, as well as the public, suffer loss in 

 every acre. Many a farmer, who has means barely sufficient 

 to manage a farm of 50/. a vear, tolerably well, thinks a farm 

 under 100/. or 150/. beneath his notice ; and granting a lease 

 to such a tenant, who has not one-fourth of the capital requi- 

 site to carry on improvements, would be preposterous. 



Ivord Penrhyn executed draining, fences, roads, and all im- 

 provements requested .by his tenants, and approved of by his 

 agents, at live pounds per cent, on their amount added to the 

 rent. 



4. Implements. 



The original Welsh plough, a clumsy wooden fabric, still in use 

 in Caernarvonshire, and a few places in other counties ; about 

 1G60, Lammas's variety of the Kotheram introduced, and now 

 common ; Scotch plough now generally known and approved ; 

 the other improved implements tried by the amateurs. 



.'5. Arable Land. , ^ , . ^ 



" That farmers convert too much of the lands which were 

 formerly in tillage, into pasture, is but a groundless cause of 

 alarm. ' Farmers should, and always will, consult their own 

 interests; and whether the conversion of their lands into 

 tillage or into pasture be found the most profitable to them- 

 selvSi, the same will eventually be found most beneficial also to 



The corn raised in North Wales not equal to its consumption"; 

 fallows general and defended as necessary. In Anglesea, a ro- 

 tation of five white crops in succession ; most of theni barely 

 return the expenses. Very little wheat pown, mam coin- 

 crop oats, and next barlev. Scarcely any flax or hemp grown ; 

 iiotatoes beginning to become a general cTop. On the whole, 

 the management of arable land wretched, excepting by the 

 amateurs or proprietors. 



6. Grass. , ,^. , 



Land well adapted for tillage ; is commonly left too long in 

 pasture ; by which neglect it becomes mossy, and in some 

 instances covered with ant-hills. It has been said of some 

 meadow-Unds in Wales, that a man may mow in them all tlay, 

 and carry home his day's work at night. This may a|)pear 

 hvperbolical; but it is so far true, thai in some meadows the 

 mark of the swath never disappears ; and a mower may be cer- 

 tain of having followed the same line, to a half-inch width, for 

 twenty or anv numbfr of years back. In such meadows, the 

 trouble of raking the hay together is the great work of harvest. 



In the eastern parts of the counties of Doibigh, Flint, and 

 Montgomery, consisting of the most fertile vales, the principal 



hed in different parts of the district. " One and two- 

 year-old seedlings of all sorts of forest trees, nearly as 

 2 cheap as in Scotland, reckoning carriage, and one thou- 

 sand worth two of theirs." This is true when the tendemes 

 of seedlings, distance of carriage, and length of time, are con- 

 sidered. Williams, and other nurserymen, ensure trees of 

 their own growth and planting for a number of years." 



9. Improveinents. 



A marsh of 3000 acres in the southern comer of the island of 

 Anglesea attempted to be embanked in 1790. The embank- 

 ment was brought forward from both sides at the same time, 

 and was intended to be 'joined in the middle of the marsh, 

 where the force of the tide was greatest : when within about 

 twenty roods of a complete junction, owing to some of the 

 proprietors withholding their dividends, the work was de- 

 serted, after expending nearly l'i,000/. and when a few pound* 

 more would have completed the whole, as the ma;erials were 

 already carried on the spot. On the 23d of January, 1796, an 

 uncommonly high tide added twenty roods more to the breach, 

 in which state it now lies. The bank was made of furze fag- 

 gots, bound with double cordage, covered with sand, then with 

 sods, and on the sea-side with a stone pavement, eighteen 

 inches deep at the top, and diminishing to nine inches at the 

 bottom. It was fifty-one yards wide at the base, four yards at 

 the summit, and five yards high ; the slope of the sea-side to that 

 of the land-side, as seven to four. 



The embankmetd and improvement of Traeth-Mann- and 

 Traeth-Uychamands, between Caernarvon and Merionethshiies, 

 have been above 170 years in contemplation, and never yet 

 performed. In 1625, Sir John Wynne, of Uwydir, intended to 

 have brought over Sir Hugh Myddleton, the celebrated en- 

 gmeer, to undertake the work ; but no materials were wasted, 

 save ink and paper. In the year 1719, some Dutch adventurers 

 made a proposal to the proprietors, but to no effect. In 1770, 

 the late Bell Lloyd, Esq., who was always acUve in works of 

 public utility, and others, brought the subject afresh under 

 consideration; at the same time proposing a nearer road 

 from London to Dublin, across the Traeth-Mawr sands, when 

 embanked. Golbome, the engineer, was sent down by the 

 Duke of Ancaster, and two estimates were made. The late 

 Dr. Worthington was peculiarly active in forwarding the 

 work. He had gone so far as to procure subscriptions to the 

 amount of 29,000/. and upwards, when the whole schen^e was 

 frustrated by the mean spirit and refractoriness of some neigh- 

 boring proprietors. 



In 1809, W. A. Madocks, Esq. M. P. having a considerable 

 estate on the Caernarvonshire side, and having there em- 

 banked Penmorva marsh with great profit (fip. 810 a.) and 

 founded the village of Tremadoc (/<), commenced embanking 

 the sands of Traeth-Mawr (c), by cairying out from both 

 shores an immense bank (</) of stony materials deposited and 

 left to find their own slojie by the washing of the tides. The 

 two banks were within less than a furlong of being joined in the 

 middle ; but owing to the force of the tides, and the embar- 

 rassments of the very spirited proprietor, it was never com- 

 pleted. 



The finer Dee Cvmpany, established by Act of Parlianient 

 in 1740; by several embankments made in the years 1754,1 763, 

 1769, aiid"l790, on the river Dee, in Flintshire, to keep out the 

 tide and land-floods, they have been enabled to gain 3100 acres, 

 which are now covered with good crops of com, of lucern, 

 and of artificial grasses; and the whole redeemed waste is in- 

 corporated into a township, bearing the very appropriate name 

 ofSealand. 



" In various parts of the coast of Anglesea, and the other man- 

 time counties of North Wales, there Is still much to bo done by 

 embanking. (;aemarvonshire has been eminently fortunate in 

 the acquisiUon of W. A . Madocks among its leading improvers. 

 Indeeil, his improvements are of such magnitude and variety, 

 designed with such taste, and execute<l with such facility, that 

 a minute re)iort of them would apiiear, to those who have not 

 personally visited the place, more like the reveries of romance, 

 than the narrative of genuine description. In harbors, em- 

 bankments, canals, buildings, roads, plantations, and rural and 

 lommercial improvements in general, nothing less than a Trt 

 Mudoc Guirfe pamphlet c:m do justice to tlie founder. 



10. Livestock. 



Cattle and copper tho staple e^iports of Anglesea. hen 

 numerous herds areboucht in the inland for the Lnahsh mar- 

 kets, they arc compelled to swim in riro.es across the strait o 



