206 MY LIFE 



culture is much attended to and practised on much better principles. 

 This part, therefore (the neighbourhood of the towns of Cowbridge 

 and Cardiff), is excepted from the following remarks. 



The South- Wales Farmer: His Modes of Agriculture, 

 Domestic Life, Customs, and Character. 



The generality of mountain farms in Glamorganshire and most other 

 parts of South Wales are small, though they may appear large when 

 the number of acres only is considered, a large proportion being fre- 

 quently rough mountain land. On the average they consist of from 

 twenty to fifty acres of arable land in fields of from four to six, and 

 rarely so much as ten acres; the same quantity of rough, boggy, bushy, 

 rushy pasture, and perhaps as much, or twice as much, short-hay 

 meadow, which term will be explained hereafter; and from fifty to 

 five hundred acres of rough mountain pasture, on which sheep and 

 cattle are turned to pick up their living as they can. 



Their system of farming is as poor as the land they cultivate. In it 

 we see all the results of carelessness, prejudice, and complete ignor- 

 ance. We see the principle of doing as well as those who went before 

 them, and no better, in full operation; the good old system which 

 teaches us not to suppose ourselves capable of improving on the wis- 

 dom of our forefathers, and which has made the early polished nations 

 of the East so inferior in every respect to us, whose reclamation from 

 barbarism is ephemeral compared with their long period of almost 

 stationary civilization. The Welshman, when you recommend any 

 improvement in his operations, will tell you, like the Chinaman, that 

 it is an " old custom," and that what did for his forefathers is good 

 enough for him. But let us see if the farmer is so bad as this mode of 

 doing his business may be supposed to make him. In his farmyard we 

 find the buildings with broken and gaping doors, and the floors of the 

 roughest pitching. In one corner is a putrid pond, the overflowings of 

 which empty themselves into the brook below. Into this all the drain- 

 ings from the dungheaps in the upper part of the yard run, and thus, 

 by evaporation in summer and the running into the brook in winter, 

 full one-half of the small quantity of manure he can obtain (from his 

 cattle spending the greater part of their time on the mountain and in 

 wet bushy pastures) is lost. 



The management of his arable land is dreadfully wasteful and 

 injurious. Of green crops (except potatoes can be so called) he has 

 not the slightest idea, and if he takes no more than three grain crops 

 off the land in succession, he thinks he does very well; five being not 

 uncommon. The first and principal crop is wheat, on which he bestows 

 all the manure he can muster, with a good quantity of lime. He thus 



