Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF SOUTH WALES. 



113S 



The vales of Montgomeryshire have long been noted for an 

 excellent breed. Some attribute this superiority to a stud of 

 horses kept bv Queen Elizabeth, at Park, near Caer Sws, in 

 the Severn vale ; and to others brought into this part of tlie 

 country from Spain, by Robert, Earl of Shrewsbury. 



Gentlemen, m most parts of the district, and farmers in the 

 vales of the three counties bordering on England, have for 

 some time fumished'themselves with excellent draught horses, 

 both for the coach and the waggon ; which, when the markets 

 are open, are sold in great numbers. They are generally either 

 black or hay ; strong, active, well made, and measure from fif- 

 teen to sixteen hands high. 



A custom very injurious to the growth, strength, and sound- 

 ness of horses, prevails over the greatest part of the six counties, 

 that is, working them too young; when their bones have not 

 attained firmness from their cartilaginous state,! nor their 

 power of elasticity, contraction, and extension, which is neces- 

 sary to endure exertion and labor. Instances have, however, 

 occurred, of horses being worked from two to twenty years old, 

 without any apparent detriment, saving a diminution of their 

 natural size. 



" The predilection which farmers m.inifest in favor of horse 

 teams, may, in time, reduce the nation to the dilemma of 

 enacting a law to repeal the Mosaic, and enjoin the flesh eat- 

 able." 



Tender furze, bruised with mallets, or ground in mills erected 

 for the purpose, was formerly a great article of fodder in the 

 counties, of Anglesea and Caernarvon. Farmers were then ac- 

 customed to sow furze for their horses ; and sometimes to let 

 the crop at a certain price per acre, which was frequently found 

 to pay better than a crop of wheat ; but Ceres at length seems 

 to have grown ashamed of such husbandry ; and the lands are 

 in general converted to bear more useful crops. 



Hof;s. The original Welsh breed had small ears, which, 

 prohablv, bv a cross with the Berkshires, produced the slouch- 

 ed -eared hogs, which were lately general through the country. 

 Thev are slow ft^ers, and the rearing of them is now upon the 

 decline, and giving place to that of more improved breeds, es- 

 pecially Bprkshire. 



Bees. " The ancient Welsh held these industrious insects in 

 great veneration,and believed them to be of Paradisaical origin." 

 {Wotton's Leges Wallicw, p. 254). For this reason their priests 

 taught that the chanting of mass was not acceptable to the 

 Deitv, unless the lighted tapers were made of their wax. Out 

 of their dulcid stores they brewed their national liquor, me- 

 theelin, or the medicinal beverage. 



When the country was almost one continual wilderness, 

 almost every hollow oak was an apiary. Their nests on the 

 wastes werp the property of the lords of the soil, and rented by 

 some of their vassals. On freehold lands they were claimed by .the 

 respective proprietors. The discoverer of a swarm was entitled 

 by law to a reward of one penny, if they were domesticated bees ; 

 and one penny and a dinner, or in lieu of these the whole of the 

 wax, if they were of the wild race. Whoever cut a tree upon 

 another person's property, 'in order to get at the nest of bees, 

 was to be amerced the full value of both tree and bees. The 

 respective prices of different swarms were ascertained by law. 

 Early swarms were reckoned of full value by the first of 

 August ; such as swarmed after that day were notvalued above 

 four pence until the following May. 



In comparison with the prices of other articles, at the time 

 the Welsh laws were framed, bees seem to have been very dear, 

 and consequently scarce : but the price set upon them "by law 

 was much above" the real price in commerce, between buyer 

 and seller. This was owing to the veneration they were held 



704.^. SOUTH "WALES. Six counties, and some islets, comprising together 2,470,400 acres of hilly 

 and mountainous surface ; generally of a salubrious climate; cold on the mountains ; but on the whole 

 more temperate than the air of North Wales. The soil argillaceous red loam, or calcareous, but ge- 

 gerally rich in the vales nd declivities. Of minerals there is abundance of hron, coal, lime, and a good 

 deal of lead. 



in by the legislature ; and intended to deter the subject from 

 offending against the statutes made to preserve them. As a 

 confirmation of this opinion, every thing that belonged to bees 

 had its value exaggerated in law : even a bee-hive was ap- 

 praised at two shillings, when a new plough without irons was 

 valued only at two-pence ; a cow fortv-tight pence, a vearlinir 

 calf fourteen pence, and a suckling calf one penny. " 



The sacred esteem in which bees were held, at "length declin- 

 mg, apiaries were gradually reduced to their present fewness of 

 """jber. However, several persons still execrate the profane act 

 of disposing of their bees for money ; but will, nevertheless, let 

 them out for one half share of the honey and wax, when they 

 are killed annually in autumn ; and the whole live stock to be 

 parted equally between them at the end of the fourth year." 



In Wales, as in Poland, when spirits and beer beca"me more 

 common, the use of metheglin declined, and bees were neg- 

 lected. Hence, it may be inferred, that the veneration in 

 which this insect was held in these and other countries, was 

 owing to its affording almost the only, and, at all events, the 

 cheapeit and most powerful means of indulging in that which 

 man, in all ages and countries has consideri the summum 

 bonum of enjovment, intoxication : an enjoyment which, whe- 

 ther with Noah, it be procured legitimately from that " tran- 

 scendant liquor," wme; with the American Indians, from 

 eiver; or the Turks from opium, has this advantage over 

 all others, that it is more immediate, more (intense ; that" it 

 is within the reach of every one ; that every one can have it' to 

 the full ; and that for the enjoying which no man is envied 

 1I((. his neishbor. 



11. Political Economy. 



Great improvements have been made in the roads and 

 dfes of late years, especially by Lord Penrhyn, Wynn, 

 Madocks, and Government, under the direction of "Tel- 

 ford. Previous to the year 1785, the annual exports of 

 slates from Lord Penrhyn's quarries at Dolawen, did not ex- 

 ceed 1000 tons : which, owing to the ruggedness of the road, 

 were conveyed from the quarries to the port, a distance of six 

 miles, in panniers on horses' backs. His Lordship formed a 

 new road, which gave immediate employ to about 120 broad- 

 wheeled carts and waggons ; and from the quarries he extended 

 the road nine miles fiirther to Capel ( arig, through Nant- 

 ffranco, and the romantic interior of Snowdon, at his own ex- 

 pense, the whole tract being his property. The increase of the 

 slate trade caused his Lordship afterwards to have an iron 

 railway, the length of six miles, from Dolawen quarries to Port 

 Penrhyn. 



The chain bridge now erecting across tfie Menai by Telford 

 will, when completed, be one of the most extraordixiary 

 works of the kind in existence. 



Of canals there are several, with stupendous aqueducts 

 and bridges. The aqueduct of the Elesmere canal, thrown 

 over the Dee, is the first in Europe. It wcis opened in Novem- 

 ber 1805. 



Manufactures chiefly b'ue cloth, blankets, flannels, and 

 Welsh plains or cottons. The best Welsh flannels manufac- 

 tured in Montgomeryshire. Welsh cottons made since the 

 time of James the First, have the warp of fleece wool, and the 

 woof a mixture of one-third or one-half of Welsh wool. Knit- 

 ting stockings and caps very general among the females of cot- 

 tages and small farms. Argillaceous schistus is converted 

 into slates for the roofing of nouses and other purposes, to a 

 very great amount within this district. 



Pyrolignous acid extracted from brushwood, at Hope in Flint- 

 shire, for the use of cotton dyers. A variety of other manufec- 

 tures to a moderate extent. "Several agricultural societies. 



1. Property and Buildings. 



As in North Wales. In South Wales in general the custom 

 of white washing cottages is prevalent. In Glamorganshire, 

 not only the inside and outside of houses, but bams and 

 stables a'so, walls of vards and gardens, the stone banks of 

 quickset hedges, and even solitary stones of large dimensions, 

 house blocks, &c. near the houses, are white washed. This 

 practice is traced to a very remote antiquity. Diodorus Siculus 

 is quoted as mentioning the British custom of white-washing 

 houses. Gentlemen's seats are distinguishable from cottages, 

 not only by their sii-e and plans, but also by their colors. In 

 Glamorganshire, gentlemen mix ochre with lime, to make their 

 seats of Isabella yellow. In the north of Pembrokeshire, &c. 

 the taste is reversed ; the cottages are of a very dingy color, and 

 gentlemen's houses are white washed ; the maxim is not to be 

 what the lower classes are, not to coincide with the vulgar in 

 their practices. 



2 Occupation. 



Farms of all sizes; two moimtain farms of 1400 acres each ; 

 general run from 30 to 100 acres, average of the district be- 

 tween" fifty and sixty acres. In the uplands, rearing of stock is 

 the main object, without neglecting the produce of the dairy ; 

 whilst they find convenience, though without profit, in a 

 scanty and" precarious tillage. In the lowlands, or moist loams, 

 especially in the more humid climature of the western counties, 

 gra-<ing is considered, and generally recommended, as most 

 profitable. 



Upon an average of the whole, the district may be said to be 

 occupied in that kind of system called mixed husbandry ; breed- 

 ing, dairying, and tillage ; varying in the proportion of each, 

 in different places according to the imperiousness of existing 

 circumstances, which will be hereafter more fuUjr explained. 



Farmers may be classed, as proprietors farming a part of 

 their own estates, small proprietors or yeomen, farmers of the 

 old school, and book formers. 



" Honk farmers, the a?rialists of Marshal, are those who know 

 agriculture only by reading about it. Theory is their 7e p/i/* 

 tUIra ; as they generally grow tired> before they are much ac- 

 quainted with practice. The practice of the country they 

 come to reside in is all wrong, and the inhabitants all savages. 

 They brfng ploughs and ploughmen generally from a distance ; 

 and when the masters retire, the ploughmen return, and the 

 ploughs are laid aside. TTiey hold the farmers of the old 



school, as they call them, in sovereign contempt, who, in re- 

 turn, deride their puerilities, and, in their own quaint phrase, 

 style their ineffectual attempts to establish a system of improv 

 ed agriculture, ajlash in the pan.' They docdnsiderable good 

 in the vicinity they dwell in, by employing laborers; and by 

 their imported implements they open the eves of mechanics. 

 Most of the harm they do, is to themselves. They injure others 

 mostly by an exorbitant advance in the wages of servants, es- 

 pecially of such as pretend to be farm-bailiffs. They give 

 double the wages that the old established farmers in the best 

 cultivated counties, Salop or Hereford, &c., will give. They 

 have generally very exalted notions of the value of land, and 

 the powers of soil. They read of the high returns of crops in 

 England or elsewhere, and calculate there upon the value of 

 land in the uplands of Wales; which, if they have farms to 

 let, makes it extremely difficult to deal with them. Their 

 opinion of manure depends on the book they have read last. 

 If Jethro Tull is their favorite author, soil requires nothine 

 but ploughing and stirring. With A. lime is every thing ; with 

 his brother B. only a few miles distant, and on the same kind 

 of soil, lime is nothtng. 

 3. Implements- 



The Welsh plough is in common use ; and perhajis a more 

 awkward, unmeaning tool, is not to be found in any civilized 

 country. It is not calculated to cut a furrow, but to tear it 

 open by main force. The share is like a large wedge ; the 

 coulter comes before the point of the share sometimes, and 

 sometimes stands above it: the earth-board is a thing never 

 thought of, but a stick (a hedge-stake or any thing) is fastened 

 from the right side of the heel of the share, and extends to the 

 hind part of the plough : this is intended to turn the furrow, 

 which it sometimes performs, sometimes not, so that a field 

 ploughed with this machine, looks as if a drove of swine had 

 been moiling it. 



The Rotheram and other improved ploughs are in use among 

 the proprietor and book farmers, and the Scotch plough is 

 coming into very general use. A gentleman, a naval officer, in 

 t'ardiganshire, introduced the light Rotheram, and insisted on 

 his ploughmen using them. As soon as he turned his back, the 

 new ploughs were dismissed the service, and the old ones were 

 brought into the field ; one day, in a rage, he committed the old 

 to the flames, and set the new ploughs a-going. Afterwards 

 taking a ride to cool himself, and returning, he found the new 



