154 



Farming of South Wales. 



district and as well farmed as any in South Wales. Although 

 Mr. Davies mentions a few courses connected with turnips, it 

 appears that the wheat, or fallow succeeded by many corn-crops, 

 was the principal; and sometimes, on the strong soils, wheat and 

 beans for six years, and laid down for as many years. The fences, 

 which were described ''as capable of affording harbour for 

 elephants," are now for the most part of moderate size, while the 

 ricks still retain their superiority in neatness of construction. 

 The entire absence of any system of cropping, so often mentioned, 

 is here the same, and therefore renders the description of the 

 improvement of its agriculture so difficult and complicated. After 

 summing up all that I saw and the various information I obtained, 

 it appears that some turnips are now grown by all farmers, that 

 wheat is taken on ley; spring wheat or barley succeeds turnips; 

 that beans and oats are seldom grown, summer fallows are becom- 

 ing rare, and the grass-seeds lie from one to four years. Those 

 farmers who still cherish the remnants of the old system, take 

 three or four corn-crops in succession, while the more enlightened 

 are satisfied with two at the most. A portion of the turnips is 

 usually consumed on the land by the sheep or young cattle. The 

 Glamorgans are principally kept, and many are stall-fed on hay 

 and turnips at four years old. The yearlings are fed in sheds 

 during the winter ; in the day some turn them out to eat turnips 

 in the fields, and take them in at night, while the two years old 

 stock are treated in the same manner, but lodge in an open 

 straw-yard. The Hereford cattle are more plentiful nearer 

 Cardiff, and the general farming is of a very superior description 

 in that locality. The labourers receive capital wages — from 10s. 

 to 13.?. per week, or from 10/. to J5Z. a-year, and board and 

 lodging. The miners at their task- work earn from 18s. to 40s. 

 per week. Few leases are now granted. The land in the Vale 

 is injured by the large quantities of hay and straw sent to the 

 mineral districts, the loss of which, in almost every instance, is 

 inadequately supplied by manure not made on the farm. 



From the Brecknock Beacons Mr. Davies observed that the 

 fallows in the Vale of the Usk were extremely numerous ; and he 

 expresses a wish that instead of " such ruddy fields, they were 

 clothed with luxuriant turnips." It certainly does appear strange 

 that such a porous silicious soil, in a comparatively dry climate, 

 should have been so long treated with a summer fallow, which 

 rendered the land insufficiently solid for wheat. It is supposed that, 

 in the original deposition of soil in this beautiful valley, water 

 washed much of the clayey portion into Monmouth, and thus left 

 the reddish sand to form the principal ingredient of the soil. The 

 following were the principal courses in 1814 : — Wheat on fallow, 

 barley, peas, barley, and clover ; wheat on ley, succeeded by 



