Farmimj of South Wales, ] 57 



the site for a new homestead, water, shelter, and centricity should 

 be well considered. Barns require to be larger ; warm and shel- 

 tered yards are wanted for the young cattle ; and the numerous 

 well-known conveniences should be built which are requisite for 

 rearing stock, and for successfully carrying on an improved system 

 of agriculture. 



The introducers of the new style of farming have frequently 

 pushed their favourite systems too far, " making art to super- 

 sede instead of assist nature." Thus the east of England and 

 the west of Wales are so totally different in soil and climate, 

 that the system which would be best in the one is found nearly- 

 impracticable in the other. The new rotation, therefore, when 

 introduced in its purity, exhibits such defects, that the farmer of 

 the old school at once totally rejects it; and the introducer, after 

 many years of trial, will find that, to make it profitable, he must 

 relax some of his original exactness. The Welsh farmer, there- 

 fore, should adapt his system of improvements to his own soil 

 and climate, and not to that of Norfolk, or any other totally dif- 

 ferent portion of the kingdom. The foundation of the old system 

 was not, at the time it was practised, radically wrong, for natural 

 good grass, excellent both in quantity and quality, constituted the 

 chief wealth of Wales. The real evil is caused by the extension 

 of the old system, which, as it now exists, cannot be too strongly 

 condemned, for it is hardly possible to conceive a worse course of 

 cropping. For five years the land produces feeble crops, and 

 for five years it j)roduces nothing, being provincially and appro- 

 priately termed " resting." It appears curious that, with a climate 

 particularly adapted for green crops, so few turnips should be 

 grown. A good rotation is the foundation of all farm economy ; 

 and till some better course is introduced, the agriculture of 

 Wales cannot improve. Turnips must be extensively cultivated. 

 Wherever they have been tried, and had a fair trial, in good soils 

 or bad, on elevated or low lands, they have invariably succeeded. 

 After land has been once brought under tillage, summer fallows 

 cannot be necessary. If the land requires rest, let it rest under 

 the shade of the turnip, instead of roasting in thq sun ; and should 

 it want cleaning, use a little extra force, and prepare it ibr a green 

 crop, and with a less harassing system of cropping it will never 

 be so difficult to clean again. It is always considered abomi- 

 nable farming to take two white-straw crops in succession; still, 

 with moderately high farming on good soils in this country, that 

 abomination may be successfully practised. Experience has 

 proved that on the better lands, barley, after a drawn crop of 

 turnips, will frequently lodge. Even Mr. Morgan, in his Prize 

 Essay on the Cropping of Pembroke, admits " barley on some 

 soils is not a safe crop after turnips." Although the following 



