78 AGiucut/ruxtc 



Improvement Peaces hard, in others loose, and less useful for fencing ; a 

 of waste lands, purpose to which I have applied it in dividing most of the 

 enclosures. 



All the waste lands allotted to me as proprietor, or occu- 

 pied by me as tenant, in consequence of the two leases men- 

 tioned above, were covered for the most part with gone, 

 (Ulex Europaeus,) in some parts of England called furze. 

 Some more favoured spots produced fern alone; and other* 

 were much encumbered with stones. The stones were 

 carted off the lands to assist in making the fences ; and 

 those, which were too small for this purpose, were used to 

 fill up large holes in various parts of the land. 



The thin soils upon these wastes seems to hare been cre- 

 ated by the annual decay of portions of the gorse; a plant 

 admirably calculated to produce, and afterwards to detain, 

 in spite of rains and storms, the vegetable earth upon these 

 steep declivities. Around each bush of gorse is always 

 found a heap, more or less high, of excellent soil ; and so 

 completely do the prickles of this plant defend the grasses, 

 that grow among it, from the attacks of sheep, that the 

 earth, produced by the successive decay of vegetable matter, 

 accumulates, and renders lands, which a few centuries ago 

 would probably have been unproductive, proper for the 

 growth of corn. 



It is impossible to traverse our mountains without observ- 

 ing how wisely these things are contrived by Him who pro- 

 vides for us all. 



The highest mountains of North Wales, where the rock 

 does not every where appear, are clothed with heath. As 

 . ages roll by, the soil, produced by the annual decay of por- 

 tions of the heath, becomes fit to produce gorse. If the 

 water has a ready fall, and the land is dry, gorse appears in 

 abundance on the more exposed sides of the' mountains. 

 Where soil has accumulated in sufficient quantities, the next 

 protector and fertilizer of the mountains is fern. Where- 

 ever this plant flourishes, still richer quantities of vegetable 

 «arth are every year added to the surface soil, and the ground 

 is rapidly prepared for the plough. 



Let me be excused for having made this digression longer 

 ■than I intended. 



I now 



