PEMBEOKESHIEE OR CASTLEMARTIN CATTLE. 199 



tons of ploughshares fast in the eternal rocks, to be philoso- 

 phised over by confused antiquarians in the next century, or 

 the plough would turn up the " yellow rab " in such quantities 

 as would ruin any farmer less opulent than a City alderman. 

 In fact, all attempts at high farming — growing crops and 

 harvesting them after the fashion in the midland counties, or 

 in the Lothians — have been delusive. All Englishmen and 

 Scotchmen who have migrated to this part of Wales, have either 

 signally failed or succeeded only by adopting the peculiar farm 

 practice of the country. The late Mr. Rees, bailiff to the late 

 Lord Cawdor at Stackpole Court, having been asked at an agri- 

 cultural dinner at Carmarthen to give his opinion on Scotch 

 farming, said he knew little about it, as there was " no Scotch 

 farmer's grave in Pembrokeshire — none of them ever remained 

 long enough to be buried there." And I remember many years 

 ago being asked whether I ever knew a Scotch farmer who was 

 able to hold his own in Pembrokeshire for more than seven 

 years. I was unable at the time to reply in the affirmative. 



The above remarks, will, I trust, be found a digression more 

 apparent than real. I wish to show that, notwithstanding the 

 undoubted pre-eminence in many respects of some of our more 

 widely-spread and improved breeds of cattle, there is still some 

 ground for supposing that in this peculiar locality the ancestral 

 blacks are cultivated for sound practical reasons, and that their 

 improvement is an object worthy of attention. Taking into 

 account the climate, soil, and average homestead accommoda- 

 tion in the country, the Pembrokeshire cattle can be bred and 

 fed cheaper than Shorthorns or Herefords. Surely an ungenial 

 climate must tend to increase the expense of keeping a beast 

 "Wintering cattle is dearer than letting them run the fields in 

 summer. The more cultivated and delicate breeds are under 

 the disadvantage in Pembrokeshire of having to be housed 

 a fortnight or three weeks earlier than the blacks, and they 

 must be kept in later for about the same period in the spring. 

 This makes a material difference in the estimate of cost for 

 the year, where there is a mixed system of dairying, breeding, 

 and feeding carried on. There can be little doubt that, in the 

 district under notice, a herd of black cows can be kept fifteen 

 per cent, cheaper than an equal number of Shorthorns, and 



