18G 
The Agriculture of Glamorganshire. 
included in this estimate. There may be said to be three 
classes of farms in this division, viz. : — 
1st. The hill and half-hill farms. 
2nd. The small dairy or grazing farms which have no moun- 
tain land attached to them. 
ord. The hill farms proper, which have only a few fields, 
chiefly in grass, near the homestead and the mountain land 
behind it. 
First. — The hill and half-hill farms have certain proportions 
of arable land whereon roots and corn are grown. The arable 
portion of some of these farms is managed in most respects 
like that of the best farms of the vale. In other cases it is 
seldom that any regular rotation is practised in cropping, and 
the tendency has of late years been in the direction of letting 
the cultivated land remain down in grass. When this is done 
the fences are frequently neglected, excepting perhaps the 
dividing one between the mountain-land and the field-land, and 
that forming the boundary fence of the farm and the liability 
to maintain the latter is frequently shared with an adjoining 
tenant. When the " inbye " or field-land is grazed under such 
conditions, the animals generally run through or over the cross 
fences, and this gives a ragged and slovenly appearance to the 
whole farm. The sheep stock kept on the " mountain " or " hill " 
portion of the farm is generally its mainstay, but in other cases 
the cattle may be said to be so. The sheep are, as a rule, a 
cross between the Radnor and the native mountain breed, or a 
stronger, heavier, and better class of the mountain sheep of the 
county. The ewes and their produce of the previous year, 
locally called " yearlings," are brought down from the mountain 
to the low ground during the winter. This treatment alone 
produces a much heavier sheep than the purely hill or mountain 
farms can do. In not a few instances a flying stock, especially 
of ewes, is kept on a farm of this kind. Cross-bred ewes from 
the borders of Radnorshire and elsewhere are bought, and their 
produce is sold off in fat lambs. The wedder stock on the 
mountain is kept up by purchasers of one-year-old wedder 
sheep in the spring, to take the place of the autumn draft ot 
three- and four-year-old wedders. The young wedders are 
chiefly bought at Brecon fairs and markets at prices ranging 
from 17a'. to 21.?. This latter practice seems to be gaining in 
favour. The ewes are crossed with a Shropshire or other pure- 
bred ram, and the lambs bring from 27.v. to 3()s. each. These 
prices are seldom exceeded by the average class of three- and 
I'our-year-old mountain wedders. 
The cattle kept on the class of farm under consideration are 
almost invariably Herefords, and very frequently they are good 
