Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF SOUTH WALES. 



1177 



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

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

 and gentlemen's houses are white-washed ; the maxim is — not 

 to he what the lower classes are ; not to coincide with the vulgar 

 in their practices. 



2. Occupation. 



Falms of all sizes ; two mountain farms of 1400 acres each ; 

 general run from thirtv to one hundred acres ; average of the 

 district between fifty and sixtv aires. In the uplands rearing 

 of stock is the main object, without neglecting the produce of 

 the dairy ; whilst thev rind 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, grazing is considered, and generally recommended, as 

 the most profitable. 



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

 be occupied in that kind of svstem called mixed husbandry ; 

 breeding, dairying, and tillage; varying in the proportion of 

 each in different places, according to the impenousness of 

 existing circumstances, which will be hereafter more fully ex- 

 plained. 



Farmers may be classed as proprietors farming a part of their 

 own estates, small proprietors or yeoinen, farmers of the old 

 school, and book-farmers. 



" Book-farmers, the aerialists of Marshal, are those who 

 know agriculture onlv bv reading about it. Theory is their 

 ne plus ultra, as thev generally grow tired before they are 

 mnch acquainted with practice.* The practice of the country 

 they come to reside in is all wrong, and the inhabitants all 

 savages. They bring ploughs and ploughmen generally from 

 a distance; and when the masters retire, the ploughmen re- 

 turn and the ploughs are laid aside. They hold the farmers 

 of the old school, as they call them, in sovereign contempt; 

 who in return deride their puerilities, and, in their own quaint 

 phrase, style their ineffectual attempts to establish a system of 

 improved'agr culture * a Jlash in the plan' They do consider- 

 able good in the vicinitv thev dwell in by employing labourers ; 

 and bv their imported "implements they open the eyes of me- 

 chanics. Most of the harm they do is to themselves. They 

 injure others mostlv hv an exorbitant advance in the wages of 

 servants, especiallv"of such as pretend to be farm bailiffs. They 

 pive double the w'ages that the old established farmers in the 

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

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

 and the powers of soil. Thev 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 favourite author, soil requires nothing 

 but u oughingand 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 nothing." 



3. Implements. 



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

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

 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 pc-fnt 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, and sometimes not ; so that a 

 field ploughed with this machine looks as if a drove of swine 

 had been moiling it. 



The Kotheram 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 Cardiganshire, introduced the light Kotheram, and insisted 

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

 the new ploughs were dismissed the service, and the o:d ones 

 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 bin self, and reluming, he found the new 



E loughs in the ditch, and old ploughs borrowed from the neigh- 

 ours at work : the master then thinking it useless to persevere, 

 gave up the contest. " 1 have," said he, " seen various kinds 

 of human beings, in different parts of the globe, from latitude 

 ten to latitude fifty-four, but none so obstinately bent on old 

 practices as the Welsh." 



H. I-ewis, Esq., of Gallt v Gog near Caermarthen, being 

 equallv unsuccessful in effecting a revolution at once, tried the 

 plan of altering the old ploughs in a slight degree, and hopes, by 

 one alteration after another, at length to transform them into 

 Kotheram ploughs " unawares to his sturdy ploughmen." 



Waggons and clumsv two and three horse carts are m general 

 use; almost every farmer of forty pounds a year rent has a 

 waggon. Singlehorsecartsgaingroundbntslowly. They were 

 introduced into the vale of Towv, several years ago, by Lord Ro- 

 bert Seymour ; into Cardiganshire, by the late '1 homas Johnes, 

 Esq. ; and into Brecknockshire, by Sir Edward Hamilton. 



A hau rake, with the head forming unequal angles with the 

 handles, is in use in Glamorganshire, the only advantage of 

 which is said to be that of not obliging the raker to step his 

 foot backward at every reach. 



4. Arable Land. 



In general wretchedly managed, especially the fallows. The 

 reporter proposes to send farmers' sons to improved districts to 

 serve apprenticeships, as better than examples sit by strangers, 

 which have been tried without success. A patriotic land pro- 

 orietor brought what were considered as enlightened farmers 

 from Scotland into South "Wales ; but as Hassel very judi- 

 ciously observes, " New practices in husbandry will be most 

 likely to succeed through the medium of the natives of the 

 country. Thev have an unconquerable dislike to every thing 

 introduced by strangers ; and not without some reason, as most 

 of the people who have come into this country from the 

 English counties, and commenced farmers, weTe in badcircum- 

 stances at the outset, and therefore have not succeeded in their 

 undertakings; and the natives, eager to reprobate any thing 

 new, readily attributed their failure to defective practice, rather 

 than to the' real cause, want of capital. This ol'Servation will 

 be found to be generally true in every country. Few persons in 

 good circumstances can be tempted to migrate; whilst others 



of a different description are frequently under the necessity of 

 doing it; and, generally, it can only tend to hasten their total 

 failure. Then the teaching of the natives, as recommended 

 above, would have a much superior effect in establishing the 

 doctrines of the new schools, than the introduction of any 

 strangers into the country. 



The sand banks cheeking the progress of the tides into a flat 

 tract in Glamorganshire, in order to render them more firm, 

 they are m-« ed with the roots of the sea mat-weed Mriindo 

 areharia). The Hon. T. Mansell Talbot binds each of his te- 

 nants, who rents land in the adjoining marshes, to give yearly 

 the labour of a day or more, in proportion to his holding, as a 

 kind of statute duty, for the planting of this reed ; and expe- 

 rience has proved its good effects. 



5. Grass. 



Hv a correct map of the rivers of a district, with a scale of 

 their fall in a given number of furlongs or miles, and of the 

 mountains from which they flow, and those distinguished by 

 kinds of" quality colours," a'geologist might give a fair eslimate 

 of the quality of the soils and grasses of the respective valleys 

 intersecting that district, though anomalies frequently form 

 exceptions in valleys as well as on sideland places. 



The ]>ractice of'fogging pastures, almost peculiar to Cardi- 

 ganshire, has been already described. (5837.) The reporter saw 

 a piece that had been fogged successively for sixteen years ; and 

 according to the tenant's information, was improving annually. 

 When land has been mowed too long, one year'sfogging is sup- 

 posed to recover it. Mossy pastures are benefited by it. It 

 replenishes the soil with seeds, that by this means are suffertd 

 to rijien and shed on the ground ; and it is said that two years' 

 fogging will recover lands, let them be ever so run out by tillage 

 or mowing. Cattle used to fog will quit hay that may be given 

 them, and clear away the snow with their feet to get at the fog 

 The fields proper to be kept in fog must be of a dry, sound, 

 and close soil ; the argillaceous rather than the siliceous earths 

 should prevail in it : but not so much as to be over-retentive of 

 water. 



The late Thomas Johnes, Esq., of Hafod, observes, " Fog- 

 ging is getting out of repute : it must have originated in 

 chance, and want of a summer stock of cattle." 



Clover is grow n in some few places for se* d, which is separ- 

 ated from the heads in a common com mill, the upper mill- 

 stone being replaced for a time with a square piece of oak 

 furnished with eight wings studded with nails on their upper 

 surfaces. These spokes, by their rapid motion, soon beat out 

 the seed. 



8. Gardens. 



On the maritime coast of South "Wales generally very pro- 

 ductive ; those of the cottagers better attended to than in other 

 parts of the district ; a pleasing mixture of flowers, small fruits, 

 and vegetables. 



Orchards in Radnorshire and Brecknockshire thrive well in 

 the valleys, but more especially in the vales of Wye and Usk. 

 Not much cider made, except on the Wye. 



7. H'oods and Plantations. 



" It appears from old deeds, that estates were formerly sold 

 at an inferior price, in consequence of their being crowded 

 with timber. Times are now changed." 



There are a great many oak woods and coppices in hilly 

 parts of the district, and "many thriving plantations in every 

 part of it. It is calculated that at an average six millions of 

 trees are annua lv planted ; if this be the fact, it is probab'e 

 nine tenths of them either die or are doomed to come to nothing: 

 for at this rate, in fifty years, there would lie 150 trees for every 

 acre in South Wales, which, added to the old wood and copse, 

 would give 300 trees, or enough to render the country one en- 

 tire forest. 



8. Improvements. 



Numerous enclosures have been made, and fencing, draining, 

 and, in some cases, watering practised as in other counties. 

 There are nearly 15,000 acres of fen and sands on the coast of 

 Cardiganshire, which are considered highly improvable, and 

 which it has been at different times in contemplation to em- 

 bank. Of one of the worst parts of this land, the late agricul- 

 turist Dr. Anderson, who was much with Johnes of Hafod, 

 said he could make it carry wheat in five years. 



9. Live Stock. 



From ancient records it appears that the colours of "Welsh 

 cattle were white, with red ears, like the wild breed at Chil- 

 lingham (6804.)! they appear to have been in a wild state so 

 late as the time of king John. The present stock are of four 

 kinds : the coal-blacks of Pembrokeshire ; the brownish blacks, 

 or dark browns, of Glamorgan ; the black rants of Cardigan- 

 shire, Caermarthenshire, and the western parts of the counties 

 of Brecon and Radnor; introduced breeds, from Herefordshire 

 and Shropshire, into the eastern and more fertile parts of Bre- 

 con and Radnor. .. . ... ... 



Cows are kept for breeding, and making bu'ter and skim-milk 

 cheese. Johnes has proved, that at Hafod cheese may lie 

 made at will so nearly resembling Parmesan, Stilton, Glou- 

 cester, or Cheshire, that the difference cannot be perceived by 

 good judges ; and that the whole mystery consists in various 

 modes of producing it from the milk. 



The sheep of South Wales are of four kinds : mountaineers, 

 Glamorgan vale sheep, Glamorgan Down sheep, and crossed 

 and intermixed breeds. 



Mountaineers occupy the hills in the several counties of the 



The Glamorgan vale sheep is the only breed in Wales, not 

 introduced within memory of man, that produces combing 



"The Glamorgan Down sheep is a beautiful and excellent 

 small breed. Feeding upon the oldest and sweetest pastures 

 of the limestone tract, their mutton is superior i« quality to 

 most, and inferior to none ; their wool is of the short clothing 

 kind, and fine. Thev are generally polled. 



With crossed and inlcrmu-ed breeds many experiments have 

 been tried within the district, and most of them confessedly 

 without the expected success. Particular breeds of sheep have 

 their Deculiar diseases, which continue in their constitution 

 wherever thev are removed. The limestone tract may be con- 

 sidered as the h. althie-t for sheep within the district, but even 

 there the imported modem breeds have brought with them 

 the scab, the foot rot, the goggles, maggots, and a long tram 



