Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1872. 315 
tricts of South Wales, is, upon the whole, creditable. jNIany of 
the newest and most approved implements have been introduced, 
and there is no lack of skill in using them. Drill husbandry is 
almost universal, and it is only on the very smallest holdings that 
grain is sown by hand. Horse and hand hoeing of the crops is, 
however, much too little practised, and mainly from neglect in 
this respect some of the farms have become provokingly foul. 
The plan of sending women or boys over the fallows in autumn, 
to fork up and carry off in baskets all the couch, docks, thistles, 
and other rubbish, though it may appear expensive at first, 
might be advantageously extended, and would secure an ultimate 
saving. We had hoped that the fine open country, and large 
square fields, frequent enough between Chepstow and Newport, 
might have furnished some examples of steam cultivation, but 
nowhere in our wanderings did we meet with an instance of this 
effectual, economical, and rapidly extending method of turning 
up the soil. To adopt this system single-handed requires, of 
course, a great amount of capital, and could only be made to 
pay on very large holdings ; but the formation of steam cultiva- 
tion companies, such as are now springing up in the great arable 
districts throughout England, would doubtless prove a profitable 
speculation. In Wales, miles of huge banks, from 6 to 10 feet 
wide, and topped, it may be, with a few briars and scattered 
quicks — intended as divisions between small and irregularly- 
shaped fields, but rather providing snug nurseries for all manner 
of filth — might well be dispensed with. If the steam-plough 
effected nothing more than the removal of these eyesores, much 
valuable space would be economised, the nation enriched, and 
the farms greatly beautified. 
The rotation of crops most prevalent in the farm-prize 
district is the four-course, namely, roots, barley (or wheat), seeds, 
wheat. With some farmers, however, the custom is to leave the 
land in grass two or three years, and then take oats instead 
of wheat. Others, again, adopt a six-course, as follows : — 
mangolds, wheat, swedes, barley, seeds, wheat. This last would 
seem to furnish a very small proportion of summer-feed for 
the sheep, with a superabundance of roots, and can therefore 
only be followed where a large breadth of grass land is attached 
to the farm. It possesses, however, the rare advantage of giving 
every facility for keeping the land in perfectly clean condition, 
and might on this account be for a few years advantageously 
taken up on two or three of the farms we visited. Lastly, we 
met with one example of a seven-course, namely, 1. Mangolds and 
common Turnips ; 2. Wheat, without Grass Seeds ; 3. Barley ; 
4. Swedes; 5. Wheat, with Seeds; 6. Seeds, partly mown; 
7. Oats. 
