1498.} 
the accuftomed difference between the latter 
and the former. But, in fhort, what Mr. 
Sotheby has done is fo much, and his tran- 
flation is worked up in fo high a degree, con 
amore e guffo, that I fhould be very unjuft, 
ill fatisfied and capricious, if 1 required more; 
and if I did not acknowledge many thanks to 
this truly rare friend in Old England, of our 
fo long negleéted German literature, for the 
honourable manner in which he has made me 
known to his countrymen.” 
eer — 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
RTHUR YOUNG, in his * Six 
Weeks Tour,” has very juftly re- 
prehended many circumitances of execra- 
ble hufbandry, in fome parts of Mon- 
mouthfhire and Glamorganfhire, which 
he vifited: and I am forry to fay, that - 
though it is many years fince that excel- 
lent work was publifhed, no very exten- 
five ufe feems to have been made by the 
generality of farmers in thofe parts, of 
the leffon that was then given them. 
Among other things, the practice of 
ploughing with four, five, and fometimes 
fix horfes, is yet too frequently adhered to, 
not only there, but even in this neigh- 
bourhood, where, in fome refpects, a lefS - 
flovenly fyftem of farming feems to be 
gaining ground. 
Among other caufes of the fuppofed 
neceflity tor this large draught, A. Y. 
enumerates that of ploughing the furrows 
up and down, where the fields are fituated 
on the fides of hills, initead of ploughing 
them from fide to fide, and thereby avoid- 
ing the fatigue produced by an abrupt fur- 
face. This prattice A. Y. fuppofes to 
be very cenfurable in another point of 
view, befides the aaditional labour it 
creates to the horfes; namely, that «the 
richeft parts of the foil muft be conftantly 
{wept away by every tranfient thower.’’ 
This laft obfervation may appear very 
fatisfactory to thofe who are only ac- 
quainted with the gentle flopes and 
hillocks of Hartfordthire, and other coun- 
ties in the fouth of England; and A. Y. 
inthe tranfient vifit, or-rather vis, that 
he paid to the Welfh mountains in the 
Summer feafon, might perceive no circum- 
ftance that barred the analogy in this re- 
{pest of the two countries. But if he 
had made a year’s refidence in thefe parts, 
or vifited them during the winter, or the 
autumnal months, I have fome doubt, 
whether he would have recommended 
guite fo ftrongly, the praétice of drawing 
aie furrows irom fide to fide in moun- 
Avriculture in South Wales. 
323 
tainous countries: at leaft, there are fome 
circuinftances of difference upon which 
I fhould like to be fatisfied, before '@ 
whoam but a young farmer, and cannot 
afford to try hazardous experiments, 
fhould venture to adopt this paré of his 
plan. A. Y. fhould therefore be ap~ 
prized, that the Welth mountains uni- 
verfally, (at leaft all that I have feen) 
abound with water to a degree that I 
never obferved in any part of England 
that I have vifited; and that it is not 
again{t tranfient fhowers, but againft tor- 
rents and deluges, that the Welch farmer 
isto guard. ‘Thefe, during the wet fea- 
fons of the year (i. e. eight months-out 
of twelve) are continually gufhing from 
every part, and in every direction from 
the mountains tothe vales; {o that farms 
fituated on high banks, and the {loping 
fides of hills, are almott as fubje&t to in- 
undations as thofe that lie by the margins 
of the rivers. During the latter part of 
the fummer before laft (1797), I walked 
acrois feveral of the Glamorganfhire and 
Erecknock mountains: and had occafion 
to remark the circumftance of which I 
am {peaking : being frequently obliged, 
upon eminences where one. would have 
thought it improbable that any thing 
more than a fcanty rill fhould be met 
with, to wade up to my middle, through 
wide and formidable torrents, and fome- 
times to trace their courfe a confiderable 
way before even this could be effeSeds, 
and in the little village where I now re- 
fide, I have feen a little gutter, acrols 
which, in the dry feafon, my very chil- 
dren ftride with the utmoft eafe, fwoln 
in the winter to’a headlong torrent, de- 
luging the roads and fields, and inundat= 
ing the houfes. . 
Now the farmers in thefe parts fay, 
that thefe mountain torrents make it aba 
folutely neceffary to plough the furrows 
up and down, ijince mere water-furrow- 
ing would not be futficient to carry off 
the waters: and that the inevitable con- 
fequence of adopting A. Y.’s plan, 
would be (and has been when tried), that 
a great quantity of water would lie upon 
the land between the furrows during the 
whole winter, and that the {eed would be 
almoft entirely wafhed out of the ground. 
What I have feen of thefe torrents I 
cenfefs gives great weight to thefe ob- 
jections; and f fhould be happy to be in- 
formed by any of your agricultural cor- 
relpondents, who are pragtically ace 
quaited with countries of this defcrip- 
tion, whether the coniequences here ftated 
, cana 
