578 
Aijriculture of A'orth Wales. 
jiaring and burning that has brought that process into disrepute ; 
the art itself, when properly cropped afterwards, is a ready mode 
of securing a large amount of the inorganic constituents of plants, 
in fact sufficient to be productive for a long series of years of 
permanent fertility. Grass lands in such high situations will 
ha\'e a constant tendency to form moss, so that it will in general 
be found requisite to break the grass lands up about every six 
years ; by keeping the land in heart, the moss will be kept away 
much longer than if laid down in a poor exhausted state by over 
cropping. 
Since the original sketch of the preceding observations was 
drawn up, I have been favoured by a gentleman who has made 
some improvements on an estate situate in the Hiraethog range ; 
he states : — 
"We have not reclaimed uninclosed lands yet. We have been fully 
occupied in restoring inclosed farms that might be called waste, but 
which had been long inclosed. One farm was let at 3*. Qd. per acre, 
which the tenant failed to pay ; it is now valued at 20s. Draining is 
the basis of all our improvements, and I should not recommend any one 
to invest capital in the improvement of any of the waste land in Wales 
without making that the first object, more or less thorough according to 
whether the land is arable or only suitable for pasture. We have 
planted tracts of waste with a view to cultivate the rest when the shelter 
gets up : our process of improvement consists in thorough draining, 
subsoil ploughing, liming, then a crop of oats followed by turnips well 
manured, then oats or barley with seeds, which lie one, two, three, or 
more years; this I consider the most profitable farming for our country. 
We did at one time pare and burn, but I am satisfied it is a most de- 
structive plan, the fruit of idleness, and a false economy ; it produces a 
forcing manure for one or possibly t^o crops, but at the expense of de- 
stroying the best of the surface soil. I have proved that the gorse, 
heather, and weeds may be effectually eradicated by working the land, 
first by hand, and then by the Uley Cultivator. I burn the gorse, 
heather, and couch-grass roots without any of the surface soil, and get 
in that way a large quantity of ashes for manure ; but instead of con- 
suming any of the soil by fire, I disturb the subsoil to get more. The 
thinner the soil the more injurious the paring and burning." 
I regret to add that few such instances of management are to be 
found in North Wales ; it was my original intention to have 
visited the estate in question, but circumstances prevented iny 
doing so. Whilst on the subject of improvements, I perhaps 
could not introduce at a fitter opportunity any observations which 
I may have to make on the subject of catch- work irrigation. On 
the first view of the case, the feasibility of forming catch-work 
irrigation in a hilly country like Wales would be apparent; it is 
only, however, in the vales that great facilities exist for such 
works. On the mountain sides the streams and torrents generally 
