The Agriculture of Pembrokeshire. 
91 
married men, who are found in food, cottage, and garden, and are 
paid some Qs. to 12s. or more shillings a week, with some extra 
remuneration for harvest-work, amounting to 30s. or 21. Many 
farm labourers, with a cottage, have also the run for a cow allowed, 
or perhaps sufficient land for a couple of cows.* For hoeing tur- 
nips the labourers' wives get Is. a day, and for harvest-work and 
hay-making Is. a day and their food. If extra labourers are hired 
for harvest-work, they usually get 3s. Qd. a day. Hiring lairs 
are held about Michaelmas, when it is customary to agree with 
all servants for the ensuing year, and an agreement is sealed by 
the hirer giving the hired a shilling. 
Balance Sheet. — I have intentionally avoided giving any form 
of balance-sheet, as the most superficial observer knows that 
agriculture at present is a hand-to-mouth business, and that it 
depends entirely on the aptitude and resource of the farmer 
whether he just makes a living or loses by his farm. In writing 
of the county it was stated that in consequence of the absence 
of trees it had a bare, inhospitable appearance ; this appearance 
of the land does not agree at all with the character of those who 
occupy it, as a more kind-hearted, hospitable class than Pem- 
brokeshire farmers does not exist. Probably with industry, 
thrift, and intelligence, together with great resource under diffi- 
culties, which are such common qualities amongst them, and 
the invaluable assistance rendered by their usually excellent 
helpmates, Pembrokeshire farmers will pull through the present 
crisis better than those in many other counties. 
Three Divisions of the County. — In one respect the county is 
very peculiar, namely, that it is divided into at least three parts 
by differences of tradition and sympathy. To the north-east 
of the Precelly Mountains, the county assumes more the customs 
and ideas of Cardiganshire ; in the centre and corresponding 
coast line is Welsh Pembrokeshire ; and in the south is the 
English speaking district. In this English district, favoured 
as it is by the best land, and possibly also by its language, ad- 
vanced agriculture is to be seen to a greater extent than in the 
other parts. It may safely be said that the Castlemartin district 
* Pembrokeshire, according to the Agricultural Eetums for 1886, Table X., 
occupies the sinj^ularly pre-eminent position of having the greatest extent of lund 
allotted to labourers definitely for cow runs. Xo other single county division 
comes near it in number of acres ; and considering the small area of this county 
when compared with some others, tliis is certainly an extraordinary fact 
Whereas in this county, with an area of about 400,000 acres, some 1105 acres are 
allotted to tliis purpose, Cardiganshire, which comes next, with a considerably 
greater area, has only 771 acres devoted to the same purpose. Lincoln.shire, 
with an area of nearly 1,800,000 acres, has only 611 acres; and in the three 
divisions of Yorkshire combined, with an area of "over 4,000,000 acres, there are 
only 1272 acres devoted to the same use. 
