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168

HUSBANDRY.

carriage of the lead ore, and calamine or coal. These are reckoned the most flovenly farmers we have. They apply themfelves to carriage to fuch a degree, as to neglect their tenements, The minerals are the great natural staple of this, and most of the parishes; fo that thefe fpecies of farms are quite indifpenfable.

LET not the little farmer, or the cottager, repine at the wealth of the great farmers. It is not many weeks fince their empty ftomachs have been filled from the hoards of the latter.. Had they not been able to form a flock, or to enable by fale others to do fo, what would have become of you? The good, the benevolent, have been able to purchafe from them the food that has contributed to preferve, for many months, you and your's from cruel want. The inftances of the recent clarities have not been equalled. I may fpeak of the univerfal charities. But I will recal to your minds thofe of your feveral neighborhoods. In public calamities little fouls lie fquat in their holes; great fouls arife, and are called forth to action; fome from a generous fenfibility, others from selfish motives. I cannot but confefs myself to be among the latter. I am felfifh enough to wish to put out my money at left on reverfionary intereft, but that on fecurity inconteftible, HE THAT HATH PITY ON THE POOR LENDETH TO THE LORD; AND LOOK WHAT HE LAYETH OUT, IT SHALL BE PAID TO HIM AGAIN!' With what animated benevolence of fentiment doth Sir Thomas Browne comment on this pious exhortation! 'There is,' fays the great phyfician of Norwich, more rhetoric in that one fentence than in a library of fermons; and, indeed, if those fentences were understood by the reader, with the fame em phafis as they were delivered by the Author, we needed not thofe volumes of inftructions, but might be honeft by epitome,'

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THE produce of the wheat of this parish is from feven and eight fold, to twelve or thirteen, according to the pains taken with the ground, or the nature of it. Our general manure is lime, burnt in fod-kilns. The lime-ftone, broken fmall, is placed within a thick circular wall of fods, and the ftrata of stone, broken fmall, interlaid with beds of coal, which is fet on fire by wood placed in certain holes left at the fides. Thefe holes ferve likewife to admit the air, which promotes the fiercenefs of the fire within. The lime-stones are piled in a conic form, to a great height above the top of the fod-wall, and then covered thickly with fods. I must mention that the holes are four in number, placed opposite to each other, and have a gutter cut from one to the other, which is left hollow by means of flat ftones over them, to promote the current of air. A circular gutter alfo runs close to the interior fide of the fod wall. A common-fized kiln will require about fixteen tons of stone: but there are larger, and those often of an oval form.

SOMETIMES the lime-ftone is burnt in common kilns, then taken and carried to form a compoft with earth, which had been deposited in fome adjacent place, and which usually had been dug out of old ditches. The lime is intimately mixed with it, and left a confiderable time to mature, after which it is applied to use.

OUR best barley is raised in the light foil which we have mentioned at p. 159. In general our farmers prepare the ground for barley by giving it a fallow in December or January, and again harrow and plough it the latter end of April or beginning of May. In the ftiffer lands the crops are frequently very unfavorable.

PRODUCE OF

WHEAT.

SOD-KILNS.

BARLEY.

OATS.

GRASSES,
CLOVER.

RYI-GRASS.

favorable. The quantity raised is not equal to the confumption. It is the principal grain ufed by our common people, The produce from the hobbet is about equal to that of the wheat.

OATS are chiefly fown in the mountain inclosures, or on the lands adjacent to the mountains. The produce is by no means equal to our demand.

Clover (the red fort) which
When the clover is fowen

THE artificial graffes are but two. we fow immediately after the barley. by itself, or without any other grass-feeds, the quantity to each acre is eighteen or twenty pounds. It is not a favorite grass, but we do not know how to remedy ourselves. It wears out in less than three years, after which we renew the ground with a crop of wheat, managed as before related. The clover-feed is procured from the vale of Clwyd, and other places where the plant is cultivated for the fake of the feed.

RYE-GRASS is fowen in our poor land; which, if not harvested early, is little better than a fodder of straw.

I VALUE myself on being the first in this parish who introduced on my estate the hufbandry of draining and flooding, which I did laft autumn, and throughout the winter, on a great number of acres. I did intend to defift from working after Christmas, had I not been induced to continue it throughout the feason, in confideration of the numbers of poor people who were in the deepest distress for want of employ. The feason was fo rigorous, that the laborers were obliged to break into the unfrozen ground with the pick-ax, before they could use the spade. This, and the hort days, made the work very expenfive: but I was far

over-paid by the confideration of having given food to multitudes, who in themselves or their families must otherwise have labored under the greatest difficulties. The undertaker was Mr. Henry Harrison, who followed the most approved practice. I flatter myself that in the ensuing year I fhall experience the effects of his skill.

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To clear the free-holders of Whiteford parish from any inattention to that important article of husbandry, planting, I bring the brief, but irresistible, defence of-the impoffibility. The dingles are filled with oaks. I believe there is not one of us have any wafte ground for the purpose. All our tenements confift of arable or pasture land, too valuable to be spared for any other purpose in this populous parish. Sir Roger Mofyn, on his coming to his eftate, planted the little that had been cleared by his predeceffor. Befides Moftyn or Whiteford wood (fee p. 25) many of our very hedges are filled with oaks: poffibly they do not benefit our land by their shade, but a few of us are true druids; and should we apply the ax, we should imagine that we heard the groans of the Hamadryads at every stroke.

I AM, in particular, so very avaricious of my woods, that at this inftant of writing, I, with true reluctance, fign to my fon the deathwarrant of a few ftag-horned trees, that have far outlived the best of their days. They, in all probability, would have had a refpite, could I move from my couch to take a look at my antient favorites. But the void space shall be inftantly inclosed, and, I may promise, that in a fhort time it will be filled with the beft of fucceffors, felf-fown, from fome of their own defcendants, their eldest and most sturdy progeny.

3

IF

PLANTING.

SIR EDWARD

LLOYD, A GREAT

PLANTER.

Ir we of Whiteford parish are deprived of the poffibility of planting within its limits, yet we can boaft of a Flintshire gentleman, who probably will be found to have contributed as a planter more to the benefit of his heir and of the state, than any other in the principality, in this age, or any past. I mean Sir Edward Lloyd, bart. of Pengwern, in the parish of St. Asaph, who finished his long and useful life on May the 26th of the prefent year. On his Flintshire eftates he has planted a hundred and fixty-two thoufand trees; and on his estate at Pant-glás, in the county of Caernarvon, more than three hundred and twenty thousand. Moft of the trees are oaks, which in future times may float on the ocean, guardians of Britain, in diftant wars, excited, either by the ambition of foreign states, or by the incendiary machinations of domestic male-contents.-Even at prefent what have we to dread! The maritime genius of our island at length begins to fmile on her again, and vigor and activity once more will fill every fail. The great spirit of old Sandwich has tranfmigrated, leaving behind the frailties of its mortal state, purified and congenialized to the breast it has taken poffeffion of, on its return to the wonted Board, to refume its well-known powers.

Haud fegnis ftrato furgit Palinurus, et omnes
Explorat ventos: atque auribus aera captat.

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