188 
21ie Agriculture of Glamorgansldre. 
The Welsh farmer's wife may not know much of cream sepa- 
rators or the most scientific methods of dairy manipulation, but 
she is cleanly and careful, and she produces an article of diet 
to meet local wants, which is appreciated in any form, whether 
mild or matured, or toasted in the form of Welsh " rare bit." 
It is gratifying to find that the demand for milk is now largely 
on the increase in the populous mining districts, where infant 
mortality has been, and is yet, abnormally high. 
Third. — The hill farms proper, or mountain sheep-farms, are 
also, as a rule, comparatively small holdings, the rentals of which 
run from 40/. to 60/. per annum on the average, whilst some 
few exceptions are rented at 100/. or more. The average stock 
is from 300 to 400 Welsh mountain sheep, and from 4 to 6 
cows and 8 or 10 young cattle, 2 horses or cobs, a couple of 
bacon pigs, and in some cases a few ponies. Some of the farms 
may with difficulty maintain the above stock, but in many 
instances rights exist to send 50 or 100 or more sheep to one of 
the many unenclosed mountain commons. In some cases these 
rights of pasturage on the common are a great advantage ; in 
others, where these commons are overstocked, they are of com- 
paratively little value. In general they are commons without 
stint ; but in some cases a district code of rules has been 
arranged, apportioning to each farm the number of head of 
stock to be grazed, and this to a great extent counteracts 
abuses. 
The mountain land of Glamorganshire, though not rising to 
a great elevation, is bare, bleak, and unsheltered. Its average 
value may be put down at from 3s. to 3s. 6</. per acre per 
annum, whilst the enclosed patches around the homestead may 
be valued at from 7s. 6(/. to 10s. per acre. The Welsh moun- 
tain sheep are small, with few good points in shape and 
symmetry. They have white faces and legs, and, as a rule, 
they are without horns, and they grow a short close wool not 
wholly devoid of " kempy " hairs. Some of them have brown 
or tawny legs and faces, and these are considered good points, 
denoting hardiness of constitution. It is no easy task to in- 
crease the size and weight of the Welsh sheep on its native hills. 
The geological formation of the mountain land, and its eleva- 
tion, are both unfavourable to the growth of the finer grasses, 
and there is almost a total absence of heather and many of the 
more valuable mosses so much prized in sheep-walks in other 
parts of the country for spring keep. The Welsh sheep fare 
pretty well in summer ; but theirs is a case of very short com- 
mons in winter, hence their diminutive size and scraggy form, 
riie average weight of the mountain ewe, when fat, at 4 or 5 
years old is 28 lbs., or 7 lbs. per quarter, whilst the wedder at 
