Fanning of South JVales, 



which are naturally dry, being a sort of table-land above the limestone- 

 cliffs adjoining the sea, while the less favoured spots near the commons in 

 the interior, which are under cultivation, are many of them not so dry, 

 but quite capable of being made so, by the now well understood process 

 of thorough draining. With these preliminary remarks we shall now 

 proceed briefly to state the system of farming generally pursued in Gow T er. 



" Truly and correctly speaking the farmers are without system — each 

 and every one having a" way of his own — which has possibly been pursued 

 upon the same farm for centuries past ; still they have some features in 

 common, especially as regards their treatment of live stock. All whose 

 holdings are large enough keep cattle, generally of the Glamorgan breed. 

 The cows are kept as a sort of dairy ; the principal produce sold from 

 which is butter, generally of good quality. The cheese is miserable stuff, 

 scarcely deserving the name. The calves are reared upon sour milk and 

 ■whey, and when two years old, bear witness to the hard treatment, they 

 have received. The steers or oxen, when four years old, are sold to the 

 dealers or drovers to be driven to the eastern counties of England, where 

 they are re-sold to be fattened upon the fine grazing pastures of that 

 district, for the London market. If anything is attempted to be fed off at 

 home, it is generally some old cow which has become from age unfit for 

 the purposes of the dairy. 



"The sheep are, for the most part, of the small Welsh mountain breed ; 

 but as to their management there is literally none, unless it be that they 

 are shorn of their wool. But ignorance in this important branch of rural 

 economy is not confined to Gower, as it prevails at least over the county 

 of Glamorgan. In a journey the other day by the mail-road, the writer 

 cannot say that he saw one flock free from scab from Neath to Monmouth. 



" The pigs are, for the most part, of the old ' lank and lean' sort, but of 

 late some of a better breed have been introduced. 



" There is now evidently a desire amongst the better class of farmers to 

 introduce better breeds of cattle as well as sheep. Short-Horns, Herefords, 

 and Devons of the best sort are now to be found ; and sheep, although not 

 of the best breed, yet of a larger size and more quiet habits, w r hich is 

 something, as a tolerable fence and a mountain Welsh sheep are seldom 

 to be found in the same parish. 



" Then as to the Corn Crops. There is for the most part some prepara- 

 tion for the wheat crop. A piece of foul and weedy ley is ploughed in 

 May or June, and undergoes what is called a fallowing; that is, being 

 ploughed two or three times, and harrowed, but no weeds are picked or 

 carried from the land. In almost every case lime is applied ; and some- 

 times, with good farmers, a little farm-yard dung. After the wheat-crop 

 is removed, the stubble is ploughed in winter, and again a scratching of a 

 seed-furrow in May for barley. Seeds, that is clover, &c, are sometimes 

 put in with the barley crop, but rarely either in quantity or quality to be 

 of any use. More often oats are taken after the barley, but the land by 

 this time is so much exhausted and rampant with weeds, that you have 

 some difficulty, in passing, to tell ivhat the crop upon the ground is. 

 There are instances of fields having been twenty or even thirty years in 

 crop without ever having been seeded for grass. 



" In Gower, as well as other places, much of the best lands are in hay- 

 meadows, but these are often late in being cleared in spring, and late 

 harvested hay is always of inferior quality. 



" Green Crops. — Potatoes have been extensively cultivated, and bear a 

 high character in the Swansea market. The late disease has been severe 

 and destructive, but upon dry sandy soils by the sea the crops have been 

 better than others. The mode of cultivation has nothing peculiar. 



