130 



Farming of South Wales. 



bed of strong tenacious clay, which is wet from surface-water and 

 springs that rise above it. Once more the rab appears at 

 Trewent, and, running to the north of Castle Martin, forms the 

 upper boundary of the Stackpole estate. In Cheriton the land is 

 capital, but the higher portions of St. Petrox, St. Twynels, 

 and Warren are poor. To the north of the village of Castle 

 Martin lies " The Corse," a tract of peaty morass resting on clay, 

 which Mr. Davies mentions as being then recently enclosed by 

 Act of Parliament. Although it paid well for cultivation, grow- 

 ing capital crops of wheat, oats, and gigantic coleseed, yet, since 

 the death of the first lessee (who was presented with a gold medal 

 by the Society of Arts for reclaiming this waste), it has been 

 allowed to relapse pretty nearly into its primitive state. Nearer 

 the sea are large tracts of sea-sand, growing principally the sea- 

 sand sedge, useful only as sheep-walk or warren. The remain- 

 ing portion of this promontory rests upon the carboniferous 

 limestone and comprises some of the best land in the Principality. 

 The plain, stretching from Stackpole to Brownslade, is fertile in 

 the extreme. Nearer the South Cliffs are extensive downs, which 

 produce short but sweet herbage for sheep, as the soil is very shallow, 

 in many places the rock is hardly covered. The great drawback to 

 this fine district is the scarcity of water. All this limestone when 

 calcined is perfectly white, and is excellent manure, but not very 

 strong cement. Mr. Davies, in his report, says, that the red soil 

 of Pembroke is entirely distinct from that of Brecknock ; " its 

 position is reversed, its substratum different ;" and he considers 

 the "most striking instance of anomaly in the limestone is the 

 intrusion of a red-soil tract upon a substratum of rab." The old 

 red sandstone occupies quite half Castle Martin Hundred, the 

 finest portions of Hoose, with a little of Narberth, and as it is also 

 prominent in Gower, geologists must decide whether it is alto- 

 gether "an anomaly and an intrusion." The soil of the lime- 

 stone is generally a dark marly loam, lighter, and inclined to be 

 sandy in some districts : it produces well all grain and root crops, 

 and is equally excellent for pasture, as the white clover (Trifolium 

 repens) springs spontaneously. The limestone soil of Gower 

 (the neck of land below Swansea) is identically the same as that 

 to the south of Pembroke. 



The soils which rest upon the coal measures and millstone-grit 

 consist chiefly of clay, sand, and peat, which are usually distinguished 

 by their extreme barrenness, and are often not considered worthy of 

 cultivation. They occupy the highest ground of Glamorgan, a second- 

 rate elevation in Carmarthen, but fall much lower in Pembroke. 

 The land in the vicinity of Swansea, though naturally barren, is 

 rendered still more sterile by the poisonous smoke of the numer- 

 ous copper furnaces. A more desolate and unproductive country 



