The Agi'icuUure of Glamorganshire. 191 
little or nothing to prevent or counteract the tendency to rot. 
Open-surface drains, so common in other hill districts, are 
seldom to be seen. It is not often that any hay is given to the 
sheep stock during winter. The necessary surface-draining 
I could frequently be done at a very small cost, and this, as well as 
I giving hay to the sheep in winter, would well repay the outlay. 
The management of the hill flocks is thus open to severe criti- 
cism. With respect to draining, the hill farmer does not believe 
in spending money. His creed is, to keep what he has got, and 
by frugal and careful habits to add to it. On pointing out to him 
the advisability of giving hay to his sheep, he generally asks 
where he is to get it, as the cattle require all that the meadow 
land produces. It is of little avail to reply that the farmers on 
the Cheviots and other ranges cut the grassy patches on the hill- 
side from amongst the sheep's feet, and make the produce into 
hay, and rick it near to where it has grown. The best managers 
of the north-country hill-farms are always provided with hay of 
this kind, to meet severe winters and late springs. The prices 
obtained for North-country hill stock are higher by from 30 to 
40 per cent, than those obtained for the hill sheep of South 
Wales. I have often put this question to myself, What is the 
reason of this ? 
I In reflecting on the answer, it must be admitted that the 
grazings here are secondary in quality when compared with 
those of the border hills between England and Scotland, and 
that there is no demand in Glamorganshire corresponding to 
that in the North of England for store stock ; but the small 
native sheep, when brought to maturity for the scales, command 
, a price per lb. in the local markets scarcely second to that given 
for other breeds in the best markets of the Kingdom. It must be 
admitted that any difference in position is insufficient to account 
for such a striking contrast in prices, and that a large percentage 
must be debited to careless, defective, and short-sighted manage- 
ment in Glamorganshire and South Wales. I have come to this 
conclusion in no offensive spirit. Reflection is made on my 
own management as much as on that of the censured unknown, 
with the hope that redoubled efforts may bring up South Wales 
to a more respectable position as a pastoral district. 
The cattle on the mountain farms have of necessity more 
attention bestowed upon them than the sheep stock, but at best 
the management is simple and primitive. Hay is the staple of 
their winter keep. If the hay season has been good, the cattle 
tide over the winter pretty well, with a daily run out to the 
woods or pastures near the farm-buildings ; but if the hay-crop 
j has been badly got, the bovine family fare worse, and bear 
evidence of the winter's poor keep when turned out in the spring 
