198 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



individual holder, but I think a very self-evident retort might 

 also have been made ; at least, no better inducement to growing 

 green crops and stall-feeding cattle can be given than by 

 building the appropriate number of sheds, which the farmer 

 always readily turns to proper use. Improved farming can 

 only follow, and never precede, improved farm buildings, in 

 Wales, as everywhere else. 



Many reasons might be adduced to show that the breeding 

 and rearing of stock must long remain the principal feature 

 in the agriculture of the district, and that under existing con- 

 ditions the native cattle are those most profitable to the majority 

 of the farmers. The counties of Pembroke, Cardigan, and 

 Carmarthen are well adapted for breeding cattle, sheep, and 

 horses. The humidity of the climate is favourable to the 

 growth of grass, whilst the soil is firm and dry. Foot rot 

 among sheep is almost unknown ; the hoofs of the colts are well 

 formed and hard, and very different from the spongy, flat-footed 

 animals bred in the fens on heavy clay soils. The bed of out- 

 lying stock is firm, and never becomes sloppy in the wettest 

 weather, the undulating country allowing any excess of rainfall 

 to run off freely to the swollen rivulets. The grass is not rank 

 and coarse, but short and sweet. It is not a corn-growing 

 country. The spring season is late, and the autumn weather 

 commences early. Crops that are grown profitably elsewhere 

 are liable to great damage, in consequence of the lateness of the 

 harvest and the wet weather which frequently sets in at that 

 time. In consequence of the humidity of the climate, it is 

 more suited to growing oats than wheat. Beans and peas are 

 a most uncertain crop. Many attempts at growing large 

 quantities of both have been made ; the result is that beans 

 have been entirely abandoned, whilst a few acres of peas may 

 still occasionally be seen. But the uncertainty of harvesting 

 this crop in proper condition will be understood when it is 

 proverbially said in Pembrokeshire that no man grows peas 

 more than five years in succession. High farming as in England 

 can never become the rule here ; whole parishes may be found 

 in which there is no more than a single field that could possibly 

 be tilled by steam. The late Mr. Mechi's advice for treating thin- 

 skinned land — viz., to plough deeper — would result in imbedding 



