Agriculture of North Wales. 
b77 
mence draining:, and subsequently pare and burn the deepest and 
most promising parts of his land : lime having been applied, the 
same should then be sown with turnips or rape ; rape for sheep, to 
be eaten on the ground whereon they grow ; the turnips to be 
drawn for cattle, to be followed by one grain crop ; if a sj)ring 
crop, oats, if a winter one, rye. I would further recommend 
that some portion of the land, all that eaten by sheep on the 
ground should have grass seeds sown with the rape, as the pasture 
from newly reclaimed and consequently unexhausted land so 
treated and laid down, is of the most luxuriant description. I 
have seen and tried the experiment, and can vouch for its being 
a most profitable method. 1 he great elevation of the lands now 
under consideration precludes the possibility of growing grain 
with success for a series of years, and the farmer will act judi- 
ciously to limit his growth of grain to the amount of straw 
required for his own consumption. In addition to its hardy 
nature, rye has peculiar calls on his attention ; it yields the largest 
amount of straw of any grain crop, besides being more economical 
in use; in such a course, hay following the grain crop will 
supply the place of straw in winter foddering the cattle, it must 
be perfectly evident to all that grain is not adapted to places 
situated as described, whilst the extreme and almost constant 
moisture of the situation renders it peculiarly adapted to turnips 
and rape : such a thing as the failure of the latter crops through 
drought would be unheard. By following such a course, and 
carefully managing his manure heap, the mountain farmer might, 
in many places, maintain all the year round more than double, 
and in some cases treble, the stock which he can now only 
maintain in summer. If the plan now described w as pursued by 
the farmer, he would soon see the benefit to be derived by pur- 
chasing oil -cake, Indian corn, (Sec, to assist the green crops in 
more quickly and profitably feeding his stock, in which case his 
improvement would be complete — this is no doubt testing the 
matter by a very high standard ; but the course is perfectly 
feasible ; and to arrive at excellence or perfection, we must always 
have the extreme point of either steadily and constantly in view ; 
and like many other matters apparently difficult at the onset, it 
will be found that every step taken forward renders the next 
advance easier. The plan described is adapted to many parts of 
the Hiraethog range ; there are, however, in the Hiraethog dis- 
trict many spots where very little liine would be required, such 
as hazel loams, on which 20 or 30 bushels evenly spread would 
be a sufficient dressing: on peats I never found less than 80 to 
100 bushels effective. Pariug and burning has many adversaries; 
but no improvement of waste land is complete without the pro- 
cess ; it is the scourging cropping so frequently practised after 
