Farming of Monmouthshire. 
291 
are all fed undercover in stalls, generally on roots and meal, with 
meadow hay and straw. Sheep are fed on roots and corn. The 
roots are invariably cut for feeding sheep, but not for stores. 
The average return per acre for corn in the neighbourhood of 
Usk is — wheat about 25 bushels ; barley very much the same ; 
oats 30 to 35 ; beans 30. It may be interesting to mention here 
that 77 years ago an Agricultural Society was formed at Usk, 
which appears, in its day, to have given a great impetus to farming. 
On Thursday, the 12th September, 17^)3, premiums were adjudged 
by the Monmouthshire Agricultural Society at Usk, viz., for la- 
bourers hoeing turnips, three different prizes ; for long service in 
husbandry, six prizes. Since that date it is evident that agri- 
culture has made, and is still making, astonishing progress in 
the h)wer parts of Monmouthshire ; and any one passing through 
the neighbourhood of Abergavenny, Monmouth, Usk, Newport, 
and Chepstow, would be struck with the energetic way in which 
improvements of all kinds, in a more or less degree, are being 
carried out, 
Tiie rotation of crops does not appear to vary much in these 
different localities. Barley follows swedes ; then clover ; and 
wheat, for the most part, and in some cases winter oats, have 
been successively grown. Although it is contended that on stiff- 
clay soils the succeeding crop repays for the loss of the year's 
fallow, it is not unusual in this county to avoid it by ploughing 
up immediately after harvest, sowing vetches and feeding them 
off with sheep in the spring. 
There is a very great change apparent on the low farms, of late 
years, in the breed of sheep, consequent upon the improved system 
of agriculture adopted. Cotswolds are now pretty well established, 
to the exclusion of the mountain-sheep, or even a cross from 
them — the larger sheep being found so much more profitable in 
every way upon turnip-land. In some places a quick shallow 
soil is met with, and here peas, drilled in rows from 12 to 14 
inches apart, are found to do well. They are, however, fre- 
quently attacked, just as they commence flowering, by an insect 
known as the green fly, when, if the sparrows do not come to the 
rescue, the crop is lost. Beans, too, and mangolds are increasing 
crops throughout the whole district. 
The breadth of potatoes planted recently is very much less 
than it was some years ago, in consequence of the disease. The 
only instances in which the potato-disease has not made its 
appearance are those in which the plant has been an early one, 
A successful experiment has been made of setting a rood of 
ground with potatoes in November. The ground was well 
manured and dug a full spade-depth all over ; whole potatoes 
were then dibbled in a yard apart every way. They were never 
