392 
Gorse. 
very hard winter he fed sheep with gorse in conjunction with some 
sliced turnips. They ate it freely and fattened rapidly. 
No. 4. 
This occurred in the parishes of Llauwndaf and Llandwiog. A 
single cutting of two-year old gorse on the banks of the Nantlle Rail- 
way has been sold at the rate of 20/. and even 30/. an acre. Mr. 
Hugh Roberts, of Rhosmeulan, sold some at the same rate ; and the 
late Captain Jones, of Dinas, near Carnarvon, sold a crop at the 
enormous rate of 40/. per acre. 
No. 5. 
From Mr. Edwards, a Farmer and an extensive Land Valuer. 
Fronerch, April I8th, 1845. 
A GOOD two-year old crop of gorse is worth 9/. or 10/. with us in this 
country. I myself have paid for the last two years at the rate of 8/. 
per acre, and from which I got 36 two-horse cart-loads ; and I consi- 
dered I had a bargain. This gorse grew on land which I had valued 
at 9s. per acre ; and it was and is so let now. The tenant considered 
he was doing me a favour by letting me have the gorse so low. I was 
last autumn travelling with Mr. Aneurun Owen, and passing extensive 
patches of gorse growing on side-land (sandy), worth Is. per acre. He 
asked me what such a crop of gorse was worth with us ; and 1 told him 
what I paid ; but those that we were then seeing were inferior to what 
I bought. He said that he had bought an acre in his neighbourhood just 
such as those we were looking at, and for which he paid 7/. Horses 
thrive better when they get gorse and hay than on hay alone. Our men 
are always grumbling and in bad temper if they have not plenty of 
gorse to feed their horses. They will ask you, when you hire them, if 
)ou have plenty of gorse for your horses; and they will tell you that 
they would sooner take charge of a team of horses to feed with gorse 
alo?ie than with hay alone. In point of cheapness, I should say that 
the cost of feeding with gorse is not more than one-third of what it is 
with hay. I have never given them to cows ; but this winter they have 
been given very extensively even by large farmers. Mr. John Hughes, 
of Tydd}Ti Cae, a large farmer, was telling me last week that his cattle 
did remarkably well on them, and that they did not leave any behind in 
their mangers. ]\Ir. Hughes prepared the gorse with a common cutting- 
machine for his cattle, the same as for his horses ; some of his cattle 
had a few Swedish turnips with the gorse, but many were fed on gorse 
with a little hay, without any turnips. The fact is, that if it had not 
been for gorse, one half of the live stock in this part of the country 
would have been starved the last winter. Small farmers in Llanengan 
generally feed their cows with gorse and straw, as most of them have 
but little hay, and many none. 
A man will cut a load of gorse in four hours, such load to contain ten 
bundles. A bundle is what we call Baich Gwr. Two men and a boy 
will grind in a gorse-mill a bundle in twenty minutes. A bundle so 
