12 Wild Life in Wales 



rock-strewn sides, no whit behind his rude forefathers. 

 Every yard of ground that it is possible to plough has been 

 brought under cultivation, and, according to his lights, 

 he does his utmost to make the land yield her increase. 

 Neither labour nor expense is spared. Huge boulders, and 

 earth-fast rocks, that impede the plough, are blasted and 

 removed : the fields are tile-drained : lime is carted long 

 distances from the station, often with four, and sometimes 

 with even more horses attached to a cart where the hills are 

 steep, and always driven tandem on account of the narrow- 

 ness of the roads ; and all manure made is diligently stored 

 and spread. In some cases artificial manures are also used 

 to some extent, and all this for the benefit of a poor, thin 

 soil, which in most parts of England would be considered 

 dear at a rent of very few shillings an acre, and which no 

 one would dream of ploughing. Oats are, of course, the 

 chief cereal grown, but fields of barley are also frequent 

 the old square-headed variety being the prevalent form on 

 the higher farms, and even wheat is sometimes attempted 

 for the sake of the straw. Most of the produce is consumed 

 at home. I dare not commit to print the number of bushels 

 per acre which in various places I estimated these crops 

 might yield, nor does it much signify. Suffice it to say that 

 the crops are very light. The farmer is happy in the im- 

 provement of his land, however, and in the finding of em- 

 ployment for himself, his family, and his servants. Scientific 

 principles of book-keeping, and the apportionment of yield 

 to cost of production, which have not always proved to be 

 an unmixed blessing to rural England, have not yet found 

 their way hither, and maybe it is as well so. When the 

 time comes for him to hand over the farm to his son, he is 

 able, perhaps, to look back upon a life well spent with as 

 much satisfaction as his more advanced neighbour, and what 

 else matters ? Primitive content is, after all, infinitely 

 better than modern practices, with their too frequent ac- 

 companiment of up-to-date grumbling, and, except that his 

 " fruits " are generally confined to a few rasps, or black- 

 berries, and his " flowers " to those which grow naturally on 

 the hills, the Welsh farmer may, with far more truth than 



