Agriculture of North Wales. 
585 
derived from cattle fed upon straw alone will be sufficiently poor 
without the aid of mismanagement : on the very best farms in the 
best districts there does not exist that careful attention to the pre- 
paration of manures that is desirable : lime, where found, is much 
abused. The peasantry throughout North Wales are generally- 
hardy, honest, pnd industrious. The usu.al wages for an able- 
bodied farm labourer is about 9s. per week. Miners, that is 
such as are strictly so, and work under the surface, average 12s. 
to 16y. per week. The principal food of the labouring classes 
is oatmeal, with which they can do very well during the summer 
when milk is plentiful ; when that becomes scarce some ingenuity 
is requisite to make it a little savoury: a not uncommon practice 
is to steep the finest oatmeal some days in water, it is afterwards 
boiled ; this dish is called flummery, and is eaten with treacle 
and water. In the absence of cheese and butter, in any quantity, 
it is by no means an uncommon practice to stew onions with a 
little pepper and butter, and spread the same on oat-cake. 
Cheese and butter are the favourites when they can be obtained. 
There is considerable attention to that emphatic word comfort 
amongst the humblest classes of both sexes, more so, I think, than 
is to be seen in any other part of the United Kingdom in propor- 
tion to their means. In the mountain districts the dwellings of 
the labourers, and the remark applies to some occupied by 
farmers, there is much room for improvement, being often too 
confined for either decency or health: with the exterior I have no 
fault to find, being composed in all cases of substantial stone and 
mortar-built walls and slated roofs. A more extended window 
for the admission of light would be beneficial. I am afraid the 
reason why these confined dwellings continue to be constructed 
and inhabited arises from the scarcity of fuel ; for though these 
places are only found where turf is plentiful, it must be remem- 
bered that a sheep-farm requires the continued supervision of the 
farmer throughout the year, and leaves him little time for the 
preparati(m of fuel : besides, the season may totally prevent the 
preparation of turf : the labourer's time is, of course, still less at 
his own disposal. 
Turnips are always in drills, and potatoes are generally so. 
Turnips are gradually making their way into cultivation, but they 
form at present a very minor part of the husbandry of North 
Wales. The county of Flint, the adjoining part of Denbighshire 
east of the Hiraethog range, Anglesea and Montgomeryshire 
south-east of the Berwins, are the places in which turnips are 
principally cultivated. I am certain there are not "200 acres of 
turnips in the county of Merionethshire or Caernarvon ; they are 
only seen about the Menai Straits and Conway. Notwithstand- 
ing there are rich corn-growing soils, some of which are well 
