312 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1S12. 
Implements are numerous and good. Hornsby's grass-mower 
was seen doing efficient work, and a self-raking reaper from tlie 
same firm cut, in 1871, with a change of horses, 2t) acres in one 
day. Cowbridge waggons are used for the conveyance of hay 
and corn. Barley is carried loose, and put in oblong stacks, 
while wheat is secured in well-built round ricks. 
Threshing and finishing of the grain for market are effected 
by one of Hornsby's portable machines, and, when not in work 
at home, the apparatus is occasionally let out for hire. Chaffing, 
too, is done by steam-power. Saint Athan district has not 
escaped the recent rise in wages, which, between our two visits, 
may be taken at Is. to 2s. per week. Waggoners, and the better 
class of labourers, receive 15s., and women 6s. per week ; men 
lodged in the house, 18/. to 211. a year. Total yearly amount paid 
for wages is about 180Z. No cottages are included in the take of 
the farm, but Mr. Thomas is responsible for the rent of three, 
for which his men are charged Is. 6c?. per week. No drink is 
allowed except in hay and corn-harvest, when two quarts per 
man daily are served out. Extraneous feeding stuffs, of which 
linseed and cotton cake are the principal, cost, io 1871, 176/., 
while the artificial-manure bill was 97/. 
Thatched, and, what is worse, small, uncomfortable, and out 
of repair, the dwelling-hnuse at Rock wants " mending with 
a new one," for Mr. Thomas is a tenant worthy of every en- 
couragement. The farm-premises, too, through belonging to two 
proprietors, are divided, and therefore inconvenient. Some very 
useful fold-yards, however, and ample barn-room, are on the 
place, and the whole are kept in repair by the landlord, who also 
finds wooden gates. The fences, maintainable by the tenant, are 
somewhat untidy, and not quite in show condition; but Mr. 
Thomas explains that this shortcoming, as well as the rather 
dirty state of portions of the land, arises, in some measure, from 
his having had the farm only four years in his occupation. 
General Eemarks. 
Having now given a very general description of the first and 
second prize farms, and having briefly noticed those highly 
commended by the Judges, it may not be out of place, taking 
the nineteen competing farms as a type of the agriculture of 
South Wales and Monmouthshire (and we feel we may not 
unfairly do this) to make a few general remarks touching the 
farmers and the farming brought under our notice. 
The agriculture of Monmouthshire has long been admitted as 
well-nigh equal to that of the best cultivated districts in England 
and Scotland, a fact which, when we consider the many natural 
