¥800. | Agricultural 
by Erafmus, with whom fhe corréfponded. 
She was married, when very young, to 
Giles Heron, Efq. of Shacklewell in the 
county of Middlefex.—Her death uncertain. 
NICHOLAS FERRAR. 
This gentleman, of whom fome account 
was firft. given to the world by Izaak Wal- 
ton, in his Life of Mr. George Herbert, 
was a native of London, and born in 
1592. His father was a merchant-adven- 
turer, and traded both to the Eaft and 
Weit Indies. After receiving a good 
education at a private fchool, Mr. Nicholas 
Ferrar was removed to Clare Hall, Cam- 
bridge, where in 1610, he took his decree 
of B. A. and the vear fcllowing was chofen 
fellow. After taking his matter’sdegrée, he 
went abroad, and vifited many countries of 
Europe, paiticularly I:aiy and Spain. 
From the latter country he returned to 
England, and in 1622, became deputy-go- 
vernor of the Virginia Company. In 
1624, he was chofen member of Parlia- 
ment; but being of a ferious turn of 
mind, he entered into orders in 1626, and 
led a retired life at Little Gidding in 
Huntingdonfhire, with his mother, a wo- 
man of exalted piety. She died in 1635, 
and Mr. Ferrar followed her two years af- 
terwards. This excellent man tranflated 
Valdeflo’s Confiderations on Religion from 
the Italian into Englith. His Life, which 
is highly inftruGtive, was publifhed by Dr. 
Peckard of Cambridge, in 1792, 8vo. 
Brifiol, O. 
Fune 10, 1800. 
: —— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
NDEED your LiIrTLE WELCH FAR- 
MER has given fo deplorable an ac- 
count of the ftate of agriculture in South 
Wales, and of the prefent appearance of 
crops in that part of the country where he 
refides, that in mere mercy to your read- 
ers I mufi endeavour to diflipate the alarm 
which his communication is fo well cal- 
culated to excite, by a ftatement of the 
mose favourable appearance of the crops 
in this part of the country, which, in one 
_ word, I never faw look éetter than they 
do at this time, more healthy, or moze 
abundant. It thonid be obferved how- 
ever, in the firft place, that being no 
great rambler, my {phere of obfervation is 
limited to the neighbourkood réund me; 
and, in the next, that, refiding ina county 
where the fyftem which is puriued of agri- 
culture is faid to be better than in many 
parts of the kingdom, my account may 
perhaps be more favourable than the ge- 
Objervations. 131 
neral afpeét of crops throughout the coun. 
try may warrant. 
As I would interfperfe a few remarks 
on our mode of cultivation and manage. 
ment of ftock, it may not be amifs to take 
a fhort retrofpective furvey of the feafons 
fince laft harve%, which we know wasa 
very fickle and a very late one. The fecond 
crops of clever were many, if not moft, of 
them fpoiled ; and the corn, in fome parts 
of the kingdom, infericr in quality, and 
deficient in quantity, was not brought 
home to the farmer’s yard till the middle 
‘of winter. Inthe year 1798, I finifhed 
harveft on the 25th of Avguit: in the 
year 1799, [did not begin till the 26th of 
the fame month, and my laft waggon was 
not loaded till the fir of O&ober ! 
The circumftance of a backward harvelt 
is very unfavourable to heavy lands, cn 
which the progrefs of infant vegetation is 
always languid and reluctant: when a 
feed firft germinates, the p'umula and the 
radicle, it is obvious, muft be much longer 
in ftruggling through ftiff clods of eaith 
than when they have only to infinuate their 
eafy courfes through a pulverifed unre- 
fifting foil; and at the time of year when 
our wheats are ulualiy committed to the 
ground, the difference of a few days only 
in the time of fowing, is fometimes fuc- 
ceeded by a difference of weeks in the firft 
appearance of the crops. The latter end 
of October may be confidered as the com- 
mencement of our winter; the feafon now 
grows cold and rainy, and the wheat which 
yet remains in the ground, or but juft 
peeps through the furface of a heavy foil, 
has many tad viciffiiudes of weather to 
encounter in its firft feeble flate, and lies a. 
Jong time expofd to the depredations of 
birds andinfects. For this reafun it is 
advifeable to have as much of the wheat- 
Jands manured as poffible by the end of 
harveft, in order that the time immediate- 
ly after harveft, which fhould be employed 
in fetting the grain, may not be taken up 
in carting manure for it. The prepara- 
tion may be generally effected by the op- 
portunity which the fioft ef almoft every 
winter affcrds at fome time or cther, of 
muckiwg layers, even on the wettelt-lands, 
ami by agreeing with the harveft men, as 
they are -hired, to work at the dung-care 
when the weather is too fickle to employ 
them in the ficld. Wotwithfanding alt 
thefe precautions which I took laft year, 
the feed-time was fo exceffively rainy that 
my grain was not all in the ground till 
the oth of November: day after day 
were the fetters driven back, after having 
worked perhaps an hour er twa, nd fome 
$2 of 
