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VI. — On the Farming of South Wales. By Clare Sewkll Read. 

 Prize Report. 



In attempting; a report on the farming of South Wales, the writer 

 is fully sensible of the importance and difficulty of the task 

 which he has undertaken and his incompetency to do justice to 

 his subject. He trusts, however, that his effort will not be 

 deemed presumptuous, but that he may have credit for the feeling 

 which really actuates him, namely, a desire to give some account 

 of, and to draw attention to, a district in which he lives, and in 

 the cultivation of which he takes the deepest interest, with the 

 hope that art may be brought to bear on that fair country which 

 nature has so lavishly endowed, but which the hand of man has 

 hitherto comparatively neglected. 



The requirements of the Royal Agricultural Society are 

 fourfold : — ■ 



1st. The character of the soils. 



2nd. The peculiarity of the agricultural management. 

 3rd. The improvements since the report of Walter Davies in 

 1814. 



4th, The improvements still required. 



It is scarcely possible within reasonable limits to describe the 

 various soils of a country comprising six counties, whose area is 

 4000 square miles, and above 2,530,000 statute acres; or, to por- 

 tray the peculiarities of its management, where all recognized 

 system of farming is wanting, and the peculiarities are nearly as 

 numerous as the parishes ; or to point out the improvements still 

 required where almost everything which science and capital have 

 effected for the sister country is still undone. 



But it will not be so difficult to deal with the " improvements 

 which have taken place since 1814." Here, alas! the task is 

 easy. 



It is proposed therefore, to enter, but not minutely, upon the 

 character of the various soils, and to give the result of the writer's 

 experience, observation, and information, in a general outline of 

 the agricultural management of South Wales, after which the 

 improvements that have been made and those still required will 

 be touched upon. 



South Wales now comprises the maritime counties of Pem- 

 broke, Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Glamorgan, and the inland 

 counties of Brecknock and Radnor, containing, according to 

 Mr. Gary's communications to the Board of Agriculture, 

 2,530,360 statute acres. The population in 1841, the date of the 

 last returns, was 515,067, being an increase of 186,000 since 



