290 
Farming of Monmouthshire. 
bailiff last year, up at the highest point of enclosed ground, to 
see what can be produced in the district. 
Arable Land. 
In the neighbourhood to which the recent remarks immediately 
apply, tillage, as may be supposed, is of little consideration. The 
corn grown on the small farms is sown broadcast, threshed with 
a flail, and winnowed for the most part with the exceedingly 
simple and primitive appliance of a sieve, a sheet, and a through- 
draft through two open barn-doors. 
Roots are seldom grown, but when they are, there certainly is 
observable a very great improvement of late years in their culti- 
vation. Formerly common turnips were sown broadcast in a 
miserably tilled field, and were harroioed when about six inches 
high, which was thought to be, at least, a much more expeditious 
way of going over them than with the hoe. Rye is seldom grown 
here, neither is the French furze, which, for store stock, is found 
to be a valuable crop on land of a similar quality in South 
Wales. 
On the larger farms a regular course is generally adopted : — 
(1.) Oats. (2.) Swedes, with farmyard manure, and superphos- 
phate or " turnip-manure." (3.) Barley or Oats, with Seeds 
for three years' lay. 
The cereals have, for the most part, some artificial manure as 
a top-dressing, and the seeds, mown the first year, are afterwards 
grazed. A great number of steers are reared in the locality and 
sold at two or three years old to go into the Midland counties. 
Butter of good quality, and somewhat inferior cheese, are made 
at most farm-houses. They meet with a very ready sale in the 
neighbourhood. In some cases the whole of the milk is retailed, 
especially in the mining districts, and Durham cows have been 
introduced to create a supply ; but they have to fight a hard battle 
with Nature on such high ground, and do not succeed well till 
they become thoroughly acclimatized. 
In the lower parts of Monmouthshire the agriculture is of a 
totally different order; and very observable, indeed, is the improve- 
ment made year by year in the general management of land, and 
in the different breeds of all kinds of stock. Tlie farms in this 
neighbourhood are frequently of from 3U0 to 400 acres in extent, 
and the course adopted in an instance where the land is three- 
fifths arable and the remainder meadow is as follows :—(!.) 
Roots. (2.) Bailey or Wheat, with Clover, pastured with sheep 
generally in the high ground, but mown on the level. The land 
is in some places heavy, but for the most part light, and, lying 
as it does upon the limestone, is consequently thin. The cattle 
