294 MORELANDS. 23. 



would or would not have a beneficial effect 

 on the lands which lie below them, might 

 eafily be put to the teft. 



By application and due attention upon the 

 fpot, other probable means of improvement 

 might prefent themfelves. 



That the principal part of thefe hills might 

 be brought into a ftate of grafs of no mean 

 producYivenefs, appears to my mind indifput- 

 able *. But whether any means of improv- 

 ing 



* An inftance ftrongly corroborative of this opinion 

 irny be produced. A labourer who lived in " Blakay- 

 Houfe," fituated near the higheft fwell of th'efc 

 mountains, inclofed a patch of moor adjoining to his 

 houfe : a fair fpecimen of '* turf moor :" namely, a 

 dry black fbriey foil, lying on a fandy fubfoil. Never- 

 thelefs, in 1783, when this improvement accidentally 

 i aught my eye, he had converted the principal part of 

 it, perhaps about two acres, into a piece of very pro- 

 dutfive grafsland. He told me that he had tried corn 

 of all forts upon it without fuccefs. It came up very 

 well, but generally died away in weaning from the ker- 

 nel. Nor did potatoes ever do well. He had one yeaf 

 a very fine prclpet ; but a cold high wind cut them off 

 entirely. He was fo fully tired of every thing but 

 grafs, that upon a ftripe he was about to lay down, he 

 only meant to throw a few oats by way of encreafing 

 thfc fwath of hay, intending to mow them oft with the 

 vcft of his clofe. His manure lime, afh.es, and cow- 

 doin ;i patch well over every year. 



