Fanning of South Wales. 



151 



some of the best land in the level. Several Englishmen have 

 taken large holdings here, and are farming well. They all com- 

 mence their rotation with a white-straw crop, then barley, then 

 turnips, and afterwards spring wheat or barley ; if the former, 

 they generally take a fifth crop before the seeds are sown, but 

 this depends on the state of the land. Beans are sown over a 

 considerable area, and very good crops are raised. When the land 

 is laid down to grass it produces most superior pasturage, and 

 one of the best oxen ever slaughtered in this part of the country 

 was grazed here last year. 



The neighbourhood of Kidwelly ought not to be passed by with- 

 out some notice of its improved agriculture. The cropping of this 

 tract in 1816 was mentioned as — 1. Wheat, on limed fallow; 

 2. Barley; 3. Oats; 4. Barley, or the oat-stubble manured and 

 sown with 4. Wheat ; then 5. Barley ; or without clover, to rest 

 from labour 5 years. There are several enterprising farmers who 

 now pursue the following and similar rotations : — Ley taken up 

 and sown with oats, then cleaned with turnips, which are mostly 

 eaten off by the sheep, then barley or spring wheat, and the last 

 crop either barley or oats, with seeds. This mode is found to 

 answer exceedingly well. Irrigating the pastures is here common ; 

 indeed all through the coal-fields the numerous springs or small 

 streams are made to flow over the saturated clayey ground, which 

 produces coarse inferior grass and, being undrained, plenty of rush. 

 Below Kidwelly are extensive salt-marshes ; nearer Swansea may 

 be seen some successful instances of thorough draining the stiff clays 

 of the coal-measures. This is generally performed by the land- 

 lord; but there are a few spirited tenants with twenty-one years' 

 leases, who have tile-drained their farms, and the general rotation 

 of crops that they practise is oats on ley, turnips, then barley with 

 grass-seeds. Few sheep are kept in the western parts of Car- 

 marthen ; and the cattle are housed in the winter, as the land is so 

 wet, that the stock could not select a dry spot to lie down on. 

 The yearlings, steers, cows, &c, are all tied up in sheds; some 

 receive a portion of hay, but they often subsist entirely on straw. 



An intelligent correspondent having kindly forwarded me an 

 account of the present state of the agriculture of Goicer, I shall 

 insert his remarks at length : — 



"The western portion of the county of Glamorgan, called 'Gower,' 

 may be termed a peninsula, being bounded by the Llanelly Channel on 

 the north, and the Irish and Bristol Channels on the south and south-east. 



"The surface, without rising into hills or mountains, is rather hilly or 

 undulating, with occasional slopes and vales capable of "being highly 

 cultivated. 



" At a rough estimate I should say that one-third of the entire surface 

 is waste, a large portion of which is held in common. 



"The most fertile, as well as the best cultivated, portions are those 



