144 



Farming of South Wales. 



applied to land now, being entirely superseded by lime. I have 

 merely noted these ancient records, as it appears strange so 

 lasting a fertilizer on the spot should be universally neglected, 

 while a more active, though transient, stimulant is procured from 

 such a distance. 



Peat is sometimes used as a manure, and has been successfully 

 burned with lime, but is more frequently made into a compost. 



Coal-ashes, which are obtained in large quantities in the vicinity 

 of the Iron Works, are very useful, especially as a top dressing for 

 grass-land. 



The operation of paring and burning is often resorted to, 

 especially in marshy and peaty grounds, as a preparation for 

 corn-crops. In this manner the cleaning and breaking up land 

 that is under furze, &c, is done in a neat and husbandlike 

 manner. The first crop is generally prime, but land is frequently 

 cropped to sterility, and this occasions the system to be much 

 spoken against. It is condemned so far back as the sixteenth 

 century, for it is the opinion of the Lord of Kerames that " in the 

 most mountenous partes which grow nothing but heathe and 

 small furse, and shallow with all, this kind of ill husbandrie may 

 be borne, but those who use this kind of betting in land, which 

 otherwise would have been tilled to better advantage, are much to 

 be blamed for doing themselves, the land, and the countrye harm." 

 Land that has undergone this process is still called bet-land, and 

 there cannot be a doubt that it stimulates the soil by bringing its 

 inert properties into a condition available for the support of crops, 

 while the continued practice of taking corn without manure must 

 ultimately impoverish the ground. In reclaiming wastes, espe- 

 cially a morass or bog, paring and burning is, in the first 

 instance, not only very useful but frequently indispensable. 

 Except where much peaty earth abounds, its subsequent applica- 

 tion cannot be commended. 



The only artificial manure which has been extensively tried is 

 guano, which (when good) has been found to answer admirably 

 for corns, root-crops, and grass ; indeed, the effects are sometimes 

 double those which are produced by the same manure in the Ea?t 

 of England. The beneficial influences of all manures exhibit 

 themselves most rapidly. The great activity and increased luxu- 

 riance which is imparted to all crops by the application of good 

 fertilizers, is conspicuous to any one who has seen the small 

 returns produced by the heavy dressings given to the gravels of 

 Norfolk. It is supposed, however, that the effect being so im- 

 mediate and extensive will be less lasting. 



A better class of implements is becoming at last gradually more 

 appreciated. The old Welsh plough, with its mould-board of 

 wood, is being superseded bv a light iron swing-plough. In the 



