238 



SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



Had the first estimate been made fifty years earlier, the comparison 

 with present-day figures would have been even more striking. 



The Gwydyr Papers throw a very interesting light on the position in 

 mountain districts of Wales in the sixteenth century. The following table 

 gives the numbers of different classes of stock on eight mountain farms in 

 1569, together with particulars of the stock in 193 1 in a neighbouring 

 parish. I should like to express my indebtedness to the authorities of 

 the National Library of Wales and the Ministry of Agriculture for 

 permission to quote the figures. 



Watson has recently given a full account ^ of the development of the 

 sheep industry in the Highlands between 1760 and about 181 o and has 

 shown how the Black-face replaced both cattle and the old type of sheep 

 often referred to by early writers as the Dun-faced breed. In Wales and 

 the North of England a similar process undoubtedly took place in 

 many mountain areas, but the change was much more gradual, and, 

 doubtless partly for that reason, there was no sudden substitution of a 

 new breed. In Wales, for instance, I think it is very likely that the old 

 Dun-faced breed was also the original type, but it had been gradually 



Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society, 1932. 



