The Winter of 1885-86. 
411 
" 5. A slight addition of com and cake. 
"6. Nil. 
" 7. No shelter but that of banks and coverts is provided or required. 
" 10. Grow more hay than roots, and reduce stock before winter. Feeding 
stuffs (artificial) might be bought cheaper were farmers to unite in every 
district, and purchase at wholesale prices." 
Mr. Jenkin Jenkins, Blaenfilyfn, Derry Ormund, Mid-Car- 
diganshire : 
" 1. About eighty feet above the sea-level. Soil, two-thirds light and 
shallow, and the remainder bogsy — peat and clay. Climate, cold and wet. 
Natural produce of the soil, dwarf gorse and rushes ; the former on the shallow, 
and the latter on the clay. 
" 2. Summer, cold and dry in ISIay ; June, mild and warm, and grass grew 
wonderfully fast, but hay was not above the average ; July, warm and dry, 
and so was August. Straw average, but filled in the ear above average and 
well secured in the earliest districts ; but September was wet, and a good deal 
of unsecured corn suSered severely. Winter very mild until Christmas, when we 
had snow, and cold followed until April. The outlying stock suffered severely, 
and thousands of mountain sheep died from cold and starvation ; April dry and 
cold, and out-door work, which had been impeded by the frost and snow, 
progressed fast and favourably. 
" 3. Stock got low in condition in May, but improved in June and until 
the end of autumn, but suffered on a few farms in August for want of rain. 
Green crops were a failure on most farms except those that were sown early in 
May. Set in fair condition, but were destroyed by flies. Mine were sown 
early in June, and were wholly destroyed by flies. We sowed again, and got 
half a crop, notwithstanding the presence of flies. Sowed two acres of white 
turnips broadcast in August and got half a crop. The mangold-crop was 
above an average, and so were potatoes. 
" 4. My hay and straw were weU harvested, but the low price of cattle in 
autumn induced me to keep a heavy stock in winter. My sheep are Welsh 
mountain sheep, and were outlayers, and got thiough fairly by the assistance 
of good shelter afforded by the hedgerows and young plantations of larch and 
spruce, planted for the purpose ; and as the winter was exceptionally dry, 
which is suitable to sbeep, they are now healthy and thriving well. My store 
cattle suffered a little for the want of a full crop of turnips, but I gave them 
a scanty allowance of barley and oats in straw instead. In April I got short 
of hay and straw; and as cattle were still low in price, I bought fodder, which 
was dear ; and it would have been better for me to have sold off more cattle in 
the autumn. 
" 5. The long winter prevented me from obtaining green crops early in 
the spring, and the land was exceptionally bare till April. I had to buy hay 
and Indian meal, and the spring was not very late. 
" 6. No. 
" 7. There is no shelter provided for mountain sheep in the district, and 
very little, if any, by tenant-farmers for other breeds ; but large landowners 
do provide shelter, and the experience of the last winter proves that shelter 
is good. Captain Vaughan, of Brynog, has a fine flock of Shropshire Downs, 
and his farm is naturally sheltered by hills, and I never saw his sheep look 
better than they do this spring. 
" 9. Peculiarities of the season has not much to do with the low price of 
beef and mutton. 
" 10. To meet such a season again I would sow more potatoes, mangolds, 
com, and keep more land for hay." 
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