IV 

 CENTRAL WALES : MIXED FARMING 



A DRIPPING evening had brought us into Cardigan ; 

 but though a fair morning tempted us to take the road 

 early, we delayed to see the Saturday produce market 

 in full swing. It did not give us a very exalted opinion 

 of the farming of the district : vegetables were few and 

 poorly grown, the chickens looked as though they had 

 been accustomed to more exercise than food, old 

 potatoes were being brought in carts, but the few new 

 ones on show did not indicate very efficient utilization 

 of the warm seaside soils. 



Butter was, however, the chief product brought in 

 for sale, and a pair of wholesale buyers were doing a 

 brisk trade. The butter came in lumps ; indeed, 

 thereabouts, it is still churned to a lump and packed 

 into bowls and pails of all sorts : we saw one lump 

 weighing little short of a hundred pounds turned out of 

 a clothes-basket into which it had been closely moulded. 

 Churning to a grain and making up into pound and 

 half-pound pats is still rare, and confined to the few 

 who have gone through a dairy-school course. The 

 price that was being paid in the market that morning 

 represented little more than 3d. a gallon to the farmer 

 for his milk. For all that the people seemed cheerful 

 and prosperous, the market was animated, and there 

 was no sign of economic pressure to force on a higher 



