322 LITTLE ENGLAND BEYOND WALES 



the plough, and no strict rotation was followed, two 

 or more corn crops being often grown in succession. 

 The general custom appears to be to keep about half 

 the land in temporary grass and to take three crops 

 of corn and one of roots before laying it down again. 



Oats form the chief cereal, but one feature of 

 Pembrokeshire is its comparatively large acreage of 

 barley, of which there are as much as 17,000 acres in 

 the county; in fact, the proportion of barley to the 

 arable land in Pembrokeshire, about two-elevenths, is 

 exceeded only in four counties in England Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, Shropshire, and Yorkshire. Nearly all the 

 corn grown is consumed either on the farm or locally, 

 but there is a certain amount of export of barley from 

 this part of Wales. One unexpected feature on this 

 farm was the presence of two fields of flax, rather 

 stunted owing to the drought earlier in the season, but 

 still a good even plant then coming into full flower. 

 The occupier had been growing flax for a year or two, 

 not for the fibre but for the seed, which he used as a 

 supplement to separated milk for calf rearing and had 

 found cheaper to grow than to buy. He assured us 

 that he had harvested a crop last year that gave him 

 linseed to the value of 20 per acre, without reckoning 

 anything for the straw, which was simply carted into 

 the yard and trampled down as litter. With the present 

 advanced prices of linseed and the enormous demand 

 that exists both for the oil and for the pressed cake, it 

 is highly probable that linseed will be a paying crop 

 on all good arable land, even though no attempt is 

 made to utilize the fibre. It is usually considered in 

 Ireland that good flax fibre is incompatible with the 

 saving of ripe seed ; but it should be remembered that 

 for the Courtrai flax, perhaps the finest fibre in the 

 world, the crop is not harvested till the seed has 



