Farming of Monmouthshire. 
293 
here. Fowler's new ploughs are used, and are very liiglily ap- 
proved of." 
It will readily be allowed that the vast improvement apparent 
of late years in the farming of Monmouthshire may be attributed 
to the very great stimulus and encouragement given to all rural 
affairs by the Tredegar Agri("ultural Show. The Tredegar family, 
the originators of this exhibition of live and dead stock, have for 
a great number of years directed their generous and powerful 
influence to its support, and have succeeded in raising it to its 
present position. The show was formerly held at Beilcvue, a 
farm-house in the close vicinity of Tredegar Park ; but it was 
soon found necessary to remove it to more spacious and commo- 
dious buildings at Newport. Year by year it has gradually and. 
steadily risen in importance, until at length it stands almost 
without a rival as the best local show in England. Last year, 
although an additional wing had been erected for the accommo- 
dation of animals, the premises were crowded in every part by 
stock of a very superior description. Prizes are given by the 
Tredegar family, the town and corporation of Newport, the mem- 
bers of the Tredegar Agricultural Society, and by all the leading 
families in the county. There is also an annually increasing 
attraction in the Poultry Show, to which pens from the most 
distant counties of England and Wales are forwarded. 
Abergavenny also has its Agricultural Show, established in 
the year 1854, at which over one hundred prizes are awarded. 
Perhaps it may be regretted that at these exhibitions (situated 
as they are in the immediate neighbourhood of the hills) so few 
prizes are offered for purely mountain stock. By their distri- 
bution an encouragement would be given to the improvement of 
the present degenerate race of cattle, sheep, and ponies ; whilst 
in all probability the West Highland Scot and the Cheviot 
(the best of all hill sheep) would be represented at the annual 
gathering at Newport and Abergavenny. 
Farm-Labourers. ' 
In consequence of the establishment of extensive iron and 
coal works in this county, farm-labourers are generally in the 
receipt of higher wages than men of the same class in the purely 
agricultural districts of England. In some instances the men 
are boarded in the farm-houses ; this arrangement, however, is 
rapidly falling into disuse, and would in no case be adopted but 
for the want of proper cottage-accommodation upon the farm. 
Some estates are well provided for in this respect, others are not; 
and here the complaints are loud and deep. " What we want," is 
the remark so often heard in those localities, " is a really good 
