168 
The Agriculture of Glamorganshire. 
Soils. — Geology, thought interesting as a study, and of great im- 
portance to the agriculturist, is frequently made only a secondary 
help in the classification of soils. In practice, agriculturists 
commonly classify them as heavy, medium, and light. The 
classification is a rough and ready one, and by no means suffi- 
ciently defined to be universally applied. Reviewed, however, 
by this standard, there is a considerable area of heavy clay-land 
in the Vale of Glamorgan, principally in the parishes of Wenvoe, 
Llancarvan, Llansannor, Monknash, and others. There is a 
much larger area of medium land in the southern part of the 
county, heavy enough to grow wheat well, but not too strong in 
texture for the profitable growth of roots. This class of land 
is found in the districts of Cowbridge and Bridgend. The 
lighter soils extend to the south-west of Bridgend and through- 
out the cultivated portions of Gower, and also the cultivated 
portions of the hill districts of the county. In short, the 
lighter soils may be said to embrace the whole of the Coal- 
measures and the peninsula of Gower, the classification being 
specially applicable to the mountain tops in a double sense, inas- 
much as a very light covering of any kind generally exists. The 
hill or mountain tops are frequently capped with large boulders 
and other debris of the Pennant sandstone rocks, interspersed 
with patches of peat and other marshy ground. Their aspect 
is " brown and russet bare," and seldom green excepting when 
covered with ferns. The grassy slopes of the valleys and the 
meadows at the bottom are enriched by the pluvial washings of 
the mountain tops. 
Area. — The area of the county is given in the Agricidtural 
Statistics of Great Britain as 547,070 statute acres. In the^Census 
Returns of 1881 the acreage is given as 516,959 statute acres ; 
but this evidently does not include the area of the towns, rail- 
ways, and other works. The population in 1881 was 511,433 
persons, which, according to the latter acreage, is 1*01 acres to 
each person. The agricultural population, not including wood- 
men and gardeners, was 9717, whilst the mining population was 
45,854 persons. The population seems to have increased 
slowly from 1801 to 1831, whilst from the latter date to 1841 
the increase was at the rate of 35 per cent. The increase of 
population has been contemporaneous with the development of 
the mineral resources of the county. Previous to 1798 the 
county seems to have been occasionally an exporter of corn and 
other produce to Bristol and elsewhere. Its whole produce, 
both agricultural and mineral, especially from the hill districts, 
would appear *o have been about this period conveyed to the 
markets or ports on mules' and horses' backs. In 1798 the 
Cjlamorganshirc Canal was opened between Cardiff and Merthyr 
Tydfil. In 1839 the Marquis of Bute completed the West 
