286 TRAVELS THROUGH 

 fuccefs -, but, except in fpots on the rivers, 

 here is neither people nor cultivation. Thou- 

 fands of acres that might be reduced to 

 profit with as littfe trouble and expence as 

 that gentleman's improvements were made. 

 I enquired of the peafants what ufe were 

 made of thefe waftes, and I found, that, 

 near the villages, which are exceeding 

 thinly featured, they turn meep and a few 

 cows on them, but that nine parts out of 

 ten yield no fort of advantage. Near 

 Eutragues, upon the rivers, the country is 

 all cultivated, and part of it very richly. 

 The watered meadows are extenfive, and 

 yield great crops ; many of them are mown 

 three times a year, all of them twice : they 

 are well inclofed with ditches ; and it is ob- 

 fervable, that moft of the corn fields, vine- 

 yards, and mulberry grounds, are alfo in- 

 clofed here with very thick ftrong hedges of 

 privet and thorns. The lands are fome of 

 them in the fmall culture, and others in 

 the large j but the peafants I converfed with 

 thought that the former is the moft advan- 

 tageous to the proprietor, and that moft of 

 the gentlemen in this neighbourhood take 

 very great care to have metayers only that 



are 



