1800.] 
has coft the farmer 5]. to perform a paré 
only of the operations that his teams would 
have performed in one day, which teams 
he has, neverthelefs, all the while to keep ; 
and that, though badly, very expenfively, 
as the dairy accounts (if any fuch were kept) 
would, at the end of the year, fufficiently 
evince. It is indeed principally on account 
of this fcarcity of fodder, that the wetnefs of 
the fpring has proved any real difadyvantage 
tous, otherwife the forwardnefs of the 
grafs would more than have compenfated 
for the delay of the feed time. But as 
horfes, till their hard work is over, require 
to be kept high -in heart—as the grafs, 
however forward, is in thefe parts (except 
on a few favoured fpots) even yet infuffici- 
ent for that purpofe—and as turning them 
upon frefh grafs, even fora fingle night 
(as I have myfelf had perfonal experience),. 
will occafion them to naufeate and rejeé 
their dry food, fo that you cannot piece 
out the one with the other ; -it has actu- 
ally happened, that the very circumftance 
which has given a fort of premature frefh- 
nefs and fertility to the foil has been inju- 
rious to the farmer, and may eventually 
prove fo to the public, efpecially as the 
wheats in general about us have the ap- 
pearance of being confiderably injured by 
the continued wetnefs of the weather. 
This misfortune (the {carcity of fodder) 
is, I believe, much more frequently and 
feverely felt in this country, than in the 
fouthern parts of England. Our fammers 
are fomewhat fhorter, as are our days alfo 5 
for our high mountains, intercepting the 
rays of the fun, produce a longer twylight 
both to.the morn and evening , (agreeable 
enough indeed. to the picturefque faunterer 
—fuch as nature intended me to have been, 
if fortune and accidents had not perverted 
her defign) but not very favourable to agri- 
cultural production. Ten bufhels of wheat 
upon a common (that is about fifteen upon 
a ftatute) acre is called a very good crop, 
and about twelve or thirteen (1. e. eigh- 
teen or nineteen) of barley ; and it is very 
feldom, I believe, that in any farm in this 
parifh it averages fo high. My wheat lat 
year. (and my crops were certainly not 
worfe than my neighbours) yielded but 
about fix bufhels to the acre. 
If ‘our grain is fcanty, our ftraw is at 
Jeait equally deficient ; and the hay (our 
fingle crop of ‘which is generally mowed 
confiderably later than the after-zozw in 
the rich meadows in the neighbourhood of 
your metropolis) has neither the, length 
nor the clofenefs which I have been ufed 
to fee when I was an Engiifhman. Add 
to which, itis almoft univerfally cankered 
Agriculture, Crops, Se. in South Wales. 
Son 
with mofs, and other ncxious excrefcences 3 
which arife, however, not fo muci froin 
the foil, the climate, or the fituation, as 
the peftiferous ignorance and indolence of 
the cultivators. Our farmers indeed in 
general are mere ploughmen. It feems to 
be a maxim with them §* take a little care 
of the corn-fields” (that. is to fay, of the 
middle of them, for they fcorn to plough 
within a perch of the hedge, or three or 
four perches of the’ top and corners), 
‘Cand let the meadows take care of them- 
felyes,”’ All their delight is intheir horfess 
which however in general are but a forry 
fet of mongrels. Of thefe they generally 
keep enough to eat up their farms and 
the whole neiohbourhood—fix horfes (ail 
iz a firing) to a plough or alittle wag- 
gon; three or four to a little cart that will 
not carry above a ton cf coals 5 and every 
thingsin the fame economical proportion. 
Even poor, little, miferable farms, that 
plough but fifteen or twenty commonacres, 
muit have three or four horfes. No body 
but my/felf has ever ventured in thefe parts 
to plough withtwo ; I, however, this year 
have kept ne more; and yet I have plough- 
ed three times for barley and peas, made 
fharp corners, and gone clofe to the hedges, 
where furrow never was drawn before fince 
the fields were inclofed; while fome of 
thofe who have three and four, poke up the 
middle once, {catter their feed upon the 
roots of the frefh-turned turf, and then fet 
themfelves down contented, and truft to 
Heaven for a crop. 
To this negligence of our farmers is to 
be added their profound ignorance, and the 
traditionary prejudices of their practices 
Marle appears to abound in almoft every 
part of the country 3 yet no body (except 
Mr. Jeffrey Wilkins, brother to themem- 
ber for Radnorfhire) appears to have made 
any ule of it; and the people in general 
moft confidently afirm, that there is no- 
thing of that fort in thefe parts. I have 
tried experiments, however, on a {mall 
{cale, with two or three different forts, 
the refults of which are fwficient to fatis- 
fy me of the edvantages that might be de- 
rived from the more extenfive ufe of them; 
if either my tenure, or the character of my 
landlord were fuch as to encourage fuch 
improvements. The-pugs of apples, allo, 
they moft confidently believe are of no fort 
of ufe for any purpofe whatever, and ac- 
cordingly they throw them down the Wye. 
I carefully preferved, however, all that 
were ground at my mull laf year, had 
them mixed with fome earth, and rub- 
bifh, and turned over two or three times 
in the courfe of the winter, and in thar 
I fate 
4 
