GL A MO RGANSHI RE, a county of South Wales, stretching, in a circular line, along the northern shore of the Bristol Channel, from east to west about 42 miles, and extending to the mountains in some parts to the distance of 22 or 28 miles. It is bound ed on the north by Caermarthen and Brecknock, on the east by Monmouthshire, and the south and west by the Bristol Channel. Its whole area is 822 miles, or 526,080 statute acres, in which is included the water-courses, roads, and scites of buildings, which occupy a large surface.
The county may be divided into two districts of a very opposite character, according to the nature of the soil, rather than into those ten hundreds by which its parts are politically denominated. About one-half the county, on the is rich and fertile land, and produces excellent crops of wheat, oats, beans, and barley. The soil is general ly of moderate consistence, of a loamy nature, some parts mixed with clay, some with sand, but almost all resting on a calcareous substratum. It is easily ploughed, very friable, and, when laid down to grass, yields excellent herbage, by which many cattle are fattened, and much good butter is made. The ma nure principally used is lime, which can be rendered very cheap from the vicinity of coals to the lime stone district.
The inland part of the county rises gradually from hills to mountains, and, in that district, the agricul ture is in a very backward state. The soil between these hills and mountains is composed generally of a black peat, but sometimes of a brown gravelly earth; lime applied to the former isbeneficial for a few years, but its good effect ceases, and having but little cat tle to make manure, and that manure being neglect ed to be preserved with due care, the agricultural produce of the district is insufficient for the subsist ence of the inhabitants. On some of the mountain farms the land is sowed with corn as long as it will yield any increase without fallow or manure, and when so far exhausted it is left without cultivation for many years. Much of the uninclosed mountain tract is devoted wholly to feeding sheep, and the oc cupiers of land around them having rights of com mon without stint, so overstock, that the animals seldom attain their full growth ; but when removed to, better pasture, and fattened, their mutton is ex cellent. The farms are mostly of very small value, varying in rent from L. 5 to L. 200 annually ; the
average of the whole is not L.50, though in many instances the rent has been tripled, and even quad rupled, within the last twenty years. The ploughing is generally executed by oxen, and their ploughs being of clumsy contruction, sometimes six or eight are used to perform the work, and yet perform it ill; in some cases two, in others four, are harnessed to the plough with two horses before them. The most commendable part of the rural economy of the county is the construction of the houses, barns, and other farming erections. These are solidly and sub stantially built, and being uniformly white-washed on the outside, have a clean and neat appearance.
The agriculture of this county, valuable as it is in the more southern part, is the least productive source of its riches. The greater part of it abounds with mi nerals, which, owing to the great extension of good roads, of navigable canals and railways, within the last few years, have become a most important source of wealth. The northern and middle parts of the county comprise a portion of that great mineral tract, which begins at Pontypool in Monmouthshire, and terminates at St Bride's Bay in Pembrokeshire. The exterior stratum or boundary is a bed of limestone, within which are contained all the strata of the other minerals in the following position. On the north side of a line, drawn from east to west through the middle of the district, all the strata rise gradually to the north, and on the south side of the same line they rise to the south till they come to the surface, except at the east end, where they rise to the east ward. In the centre of this tract the iron and coal mines in the vicinity of Myrthr-Tydvil are both the richest and most abundant. The whole of the coal is at the depth of 440 feet beneath the surface of the ground, which is composed of argillaceous strata, with occasional veins of hard rock. The coal is about 52 feet deep, the thickness of the veins vary ing from 12 inches to 9 feet in thickness. The iron stone lies under the stone for about 108 feet, and is se parated by argillaceous earth and stone into eighteen different veins, each about 4 feet 10 inches in thick ness. When this ore is smelted, it yields iron to the amount of three-tenths of the weight of the ore.