Welsh Journals

a loaf of black bread, which had come to be re- garded as something of a luxury. The black bread has completely disappeared by this time and the wheaten loaf even is only to be found in one or two places, where the wheat may quite possibly have been bought of the miller. The mill is in serious decline and would probably have become derelict had it not been converted to supply the village with electricity. So much less corn is grown nowadays that for the little grinding that is required, the kibbler, which is to be found on most farms, is quite sufficient. Every farmer now rears lambs for the summer markets, which are held from June to the end of September. This lamb rearing has brought about a fundamental change in the character of sheep- farming itself, although it is very doubtful whether most of the farmers appreciate the nature of the change that has taken place. Twenty years ago the typical product of the hill farms was the three year old wether that had probably spent its first winter pasturing (wintering is the local term) on the upland farms of Cerrig-y-Druidion or around the Dee Valley, after which it would oc- cupy its native sheep walk until its second shear- ing, when it would be brought down from the hills, fattened, and sold in the autumn. This was the Welsh mutton that was so justly praised, but now the lambs are cross-bred and are all sold, if possible, before the end of the summer and the wethers have almost completely disappeared. The lambs and their dams of course, share with the cows the summer pastures that were formerly almost exclusively retained for the latter, for the extra pasture required has often been obtained by letting the arable fall back to pasture. This has reacted upon the area of cultivated land. Of course, it is much more profitable for the farmer to dispose of his lambs when three of four months old than to sell them as wethers at three or four years of age. But it has, to some extent, upset the dairying practice in which in former days a great deal of butter was made during the height of summer and salted in tubs and vats for winter use. This is a trade that has seriously declined. Apart from this very important change in the economic organization of the farms, not much al- teration has taken place in the character of the farming, apart from the introduction of machinery and the more general use of feeding stuffs and artificial manures, but on few farms is the standard of cultivation anything like as high as it was a generation ago. The introduction of machinery, however, has done a great deal to humanize farming. In the old days of hard con- stant toil there was, undoubtedly, something of the element of brutality about a great deal of farm work, but that is no longer the case, and both the men and the women enjoy a much larger amount of leisure than did their fathers and mothers a generation ago. None of the hay is now cut by hand and less and less of the corn, and the old flail and winnowing machine, with which some people were engaged throughout the whole of the winter, has disappeared altogether. Going to market has become a weekly affair, and it is interesting to note the very considerable change in dress that has taken place as a result. The old dowdyism has vanished completely and most of the women are just as well dressed as the townsfolk. The change is not quite so pronounced in the case of the men, perhaps, but the home- spun, the flannel shirt, the home-knit stockings are no longer in evidence. The most important man in the village is easily the Schoolmaster. Occasionally however, he is the village's greatest tragedy. It is very difficult to detect any great change in the quality of the education given. So much depends upon the quality of the headmaser. But when the Head is a man of no real intellectual interest and is inclined to vegetate, the plight of the village school is hard indeed. Moreover, the fact that the control has been removed from the old School Board and vested in the L.E.A. has led to a real decline in the interest taken in the school. The school was something vital then, and if there was some de- nominational wire-pulling whenever an appoint- ment was being made one would feel much hap- pier about it if one could really believe that such things are unknown in the L.E.A.'s. But anyone who knows how some appointments are made in certain parts of Wales today cannot really say that things have much improved since the old Board School days. In equipment perhaps the schools are better dealt with, but equipment and educa- tion are two very different things. One hears everywhere complaints about the ser- ious decline in religion, and about non-attendance at places of worship, but some "esgeuluswyr," like the poor, we have always had with us. For- merly they were quite definitely classed as sinners and reprobates. They accepted the classification themselves, for were they not in many cases the jovial old souls who had sat too long over their pints on a Saturday evening and required Sunday to recover ? Some of those institutions that we regard as an essential mark of Nonconformity particularly are seriously in decline. The Seiat is on the verge of disappearing and in some cases would have dis- appeared were it not for the loyalty and enthus- iasm of the ministers or of a "blaenor" of the old school. The Cyfarfod Gweddi, now that it is an united affair, cannot muster the numbers which a single denomination could formerly rally. The Sunday School is in a somewhat different strait. The older members have either declined or