Comparative Agriculture of England and Wales. 217 
when viewed from the elevated districts of the rricain land is that 
of an unbroken plain ; and its highest point only slightly exceeds 
700 feet. Anglesea is in great part covered with drift clay and 
gravel, the older rocks protruding as isolated patches, which are 
frequently waste land. The most striking feature of the agri- 
culture of Anglesea is its high percentage of oats and rotation 
grasses, in both of which it exceeds every other English or 
Welsh county. The westerly aspect of Anglesea will always 
prevent this county from ranking high in the list of corn- 
growing districts, but there is every reason why it should take a 
higher rank than it does now. 
Along the coast of South Wales, especially of Cardigan and 
Pembroke, large quantities of barley are grown.* In each of 
these counties, and in Carnarvon, the percentage of barley is 
more than double that of wheat. Barley also ranks higher than 
wheat in Anglesea, Merioneth, and Carmarthen. This is not 
the case in any English county. In Westmoreland the propor- 
tions are equal (both 0"6 per cent.). 
Cornwall and Devon contain a large proportion of high land ; 
but this area differs from all other mountainous regions of Great 
Britain, because the high land occurs in detached masses. In 
other districts a contour line, say of 1000 feet, can be traced 
continuously on the map for very long distances ; being inter- 
rupted only by stream valleys, or by the lower points of the 
watershed. In the South-west of England it is not so ; the 
contour line of 1000 feet winds round the granitic areas of 
Dartmoor, St. Austell, (Sec, and the slaty rocks of North Devon 
and West Somerset. We have here, therefore, an excellent illus- 
tration of the dependence of contour upon geological structure. 
The same district also furnishes an illustration of the dependence 
of agriculture upon contour, perhaps the most striking to be found 
in England. The granitic (or "growan ") soils, which are barren 
at high elevations, furnish some of the most prolific soils in 
Cornwall when they occur at lower levels. 
Another district of high moorland is the eastern part of the 
North Riding of Yorkshire, where the Lower Oolitic rocks 
consist very largely of sandstone. A great part of these eastern 
moorlands is above the 1000 feet contour-line. Here, again, the 
relation between geology, contour, and agriculture, is well seen. 
In the South of England, where the Oolites consist largely of lime- 
stone, there is no moorland. Much of the Cotswolds consists of 
* In a wonderful district of Cardigan, barley (without other manure than sea- 
weed and sea-sand) has been grown for many years in succession. One field is 
mentioned as having been cropped with barley for 100 years, without a single 
alteration.— {C.S. Read, " Farming of South Wales," — ' Journal of the Koyal Agri- 
cultural Society,' vol. x. p. 133.) 
