570 
Af/ricit1lnrr nf North Waleg. 
farms tlie tenants generally rear from 2 to 3 pigs, which when fiU will 
average from 15 to 25 score weight, one of which, alwaj^s the worst, they 
keep for their own use, and the ethers they sell to drovers at about 3t/. 
per pound alive.* From this county (Merionethshire) they are all 
driven down to Shrewsbury, Bridgenorth, Wolverhampton, and neigh- 
bourhood. Good butter and small skim-milk cheese are made. No. 3 
samples are from land situated about 600 feet above the level of the sea. 
Rents mostly made out of sheep, cattle, pigs, and butter, which are dis- 
posed of as before mentioned. The system of cropping is generally oats 
after one ploughing (no manure of any kind) ; 2nd year, potatoes and 
weeds; they consider weeding a waste of time and do not calculate the 
nourishment taken from the soil to support such weeds. After the 
potato-plant appears above ground they mostly give a slight top-dressing 
of lime ; 3rd year, wheat; 4th, barley ; very seldom laid down with good 
grass seeds or clovers. Some crop as follows : 1st year, oats ; 2nd, pota- 
toes ; 3rd, barley, laid down with grass-seeds and clovers, or oats, potatoes, 
barley, oats, and then left to chance. No. 4, as well as the preceding 
samples, is strongly impregnated with iron and iron pyrites ; the stone, 
which is not above 18 to 24 inches below the surface, is very rich in 
metal, yielding on an average 55 per cent. ; the deposit of ore in this 
neighbourhood is immense : it extends over some thousands of acres, 
and its thickness is not known ; the style of farming same as the first 
named. No. 5 sample is from land about 10 to 12 feet above the level 
of the sea ; the system of cropping is oats first, manured with night-soil ;t 
2nd year, potatoes, manured with farm-yard manure, top-dressed with 
lime when the leaves apj)ear above ground ; little attention paid to weed- 
ing ; sometimes in the corner of a potato-field you may find a small 
patch of swedes or turnips, but very rarely; 3rd year, wheat; 4th year, 
barley, sometimes laid down with clovers, rye-grass, &c. ; no cheese 
made in this district ; tlie cream is made into butter ; skim-milk dis- 
posed of in Dolgellau at 2(1. per quart, the butter at from \0d. to 1*. i)er 
lb. ; live stock sold as in other parts of the country ; this is in the im- 
mediate neighbourhood of Dolgellau. In the neighbourhood of Towyn 
the farming is of a better description ; farms larger, soil riclier, although 
they are more or less impregnated with iron, manganese, &c. ; the sub- 
soils are principally intermixed witli shale, gravel, or decomposed slate, 
resting upon a blue clay, same as the one sent in No. 3 sample ; the 
rocks are varied : generally slate, iron, with veins of manganese and 
greenstone ; the cropping is first year turnips or potatoes ; 2nd year, 
wheat; 3rd year, if potatoes the first year, the tliird year will be tur- 
nips, or if turnips the first year, the third year will be potatoes ; 4th 
year, wheat; 5th year, barley, laid down with clovers ancl grass-seeds ; 
they generally lime well the first year; live stock sold as in other parts 
of the country. lilancgrin, farms not so large; system nearly the same. 
LUvyngwil, system of farming same as Towyn ; but in this immediate 
• It may be noticed here tliat tiic custom obtains in many parts of North 
Wales, of putting the live grunter in the scales, and deducing the nett 
dead weight llu'relVom, at which the drovers and bulcliers in that eountiy 
are exceedingly accurate. 
\ IJi'ing near Dolgelly. 
