554 
Agriculture of North Wales. 
freestone, which, combined, form the base whereon rests the 
active soil on which the skill and industry of the husbandman have 
to be exercised ; so broken is the surface of the country about to 
be described by the abrupt irruption and intermixture of masses 
of rocks, of varied chemical and geological character, in the vi- 
cinity of each other, that to attempt to classify the soils by either 
the geological or chemical data of the rocks on which the active 
soil is superimposed is wholly impossible. At the onset, there- 
fore, the reporter craves the indulgence of the reader for what 
might otherwise be considered a want of method in the arrange- 
ment of this part of the subject. It was his original intention to 
have classified the same under either a geological or chemical 
type, and, when possible, under both ; a most minute and careful 
examination of the country has convinced him that such an ar- 
rangement was not feasible. I'or the sake of perspicuity it is 
indispensable that some type or order should be pursued; in 
doing so I shall claim the privilege of grouping the soils under 
either a local or geological order, as may seem most meet for the 
purpose of giving a succinct and accurate description. 
On entering Wales by the Chester road, the appearance that 
the country presents is that of a somewhat extended plain, with 
gentle undulations, gradually increasing into hills towards the 
western extremity, until the view is terminated by the increasing 
heights of the limestone hills of Flintshire, which are in some 
cases again overtopped by the still higher summits of the upper 
Silurian mountains of Denbighshire, the latter forming the eastern 
boundary of the celebrated vale of Clwyd ; a break occurs in 
the limestone series at Cyrn y Brain, this latter hill being classed 
amongst the caradoc sandstone series. Abutting to the south- 
east of Cyrn y Brain, the same limestone again crops out, 
forming a kind of crescent, the south-eastern horn of which abuts 
on the Chester and Holyhead road near Llangollen, when a 
break again takes place for a short space by the intervention of 
the upper silurian, in which at this place lies the bed of the Dee, 
and opposite the mail-coach route the limestone formation again 
appears, forming a narrow, but abrupt and somewhat elevated 
band, which passes by Chirk, and continues uninterruptedly in 
a southern direction to Llanymenach, about 10 miles from Welsh- 
pool, being, from Chirk to its southern extremity, coincident or 
nearly so with the borders of England; the southern, eastern, 
and north-eastern boundaries are formed by the river Dee and its 
estuary ; taking the average length from Chirk in the south to 
JNIold in the north, the same may be about "20 miles, and the 
width from Minora to the Dee about 10 jnilcs. This tract con- 
tains the largest continuous extent of land of one particular soil 
of any part of North Wales; the whole of it lies on what are 
commonly known as the coal-measures, several most extensive 
