CARDIGANSHIRE, in Welsh St...ticA Abcricini, or Sir .ibbcr a county in South Wale s. It and( tidy formed one of the six parts into which the kingdom of Wales, called Dinevowr, was divided, and contained lout cantrels and ten comots : (See Enderbie's Cambria Trz umnhans, p. 214.) It is bounded on the north by Me rionethshire, on the west by that part of St George's Channel called Cardigan Bay. on the south by the coun ties of Caermarthen and Pembroke, and on the east those of Radnor and Breeknock. The western side of it has suffered great depredations from the sea. Accord ing to tradition, an extensive tract of land has been swept away ; and, instead of many flourishing towns, there now remain only a few mist rabic villages. Sonic hate supposed, that the. whole of Cardigan Bay was for merly a spacious plain, on which the sea made gradual encroachments, till its progress was sit pped by the ele vated ground which now encircles the shore ; an I the appearance which the scene exhibits, together with the common opinion that prevails the people, renders this supposition extremely probable.
This county may be die ided into two districts, the low er and the upper. On the more elevated grounds of the lower district, the soil is in general a light sandy loam, varying in depth from four inches to a foot, and having for its substratum a slaty kind of rock. In the valleys it is very deep, and, with a few exceptions, very dry. The manures made use of are clung, lime, and marle. Tole rable crops are raised of wheat, barley, peas, black oats, and potatoes. Turnips also are cultivated to some ex tent, and rich fields of clover and natural grass are occa sionally to be seen. But the mode of farming is, on the whole, injudicious and slovenly ; and, consequently, the produce is in very few cases so abundant as might be expected from the goodness of the climate, and thc qua lity of the ground. It is a singular fact, that there is a good deal of land on the sea coast from which crops of barley have been annually taken for at least sixty years past, without any diminution either in the quantity or qua lity of the produce. The manure employed is sea-weed ; and the grain is accounted so excellent, that it is sent to the adjacent counties for seed-corn. The farmers all keep cows for the purpose of breeding ; and also of mak ing butter and skimmed milk cheese,—the lbrmer of which is chiefly for exportation, and the latter solely for home consumption. The black cattle are of the Pem brokeshire breed : they work, travel, and fatten well ; and used to be favourites of the English drovers, who bought them readily, and at good prices. These are kept by the few who sow turnips. Their number is diminishing, be cause a spirit for enclosing prevails, and they arc reckon ed enemies to the growth of young hedges. This is surely unwise, as the soil is so well adapted to them, and as the evil which they occasion might be easily pre vented.
The upper district, comprehending chiefly the north ern and eastern parts of the county, is very mountainous. A great proportion of it is bleak and barren; but much of this is owing to want of judicious enterprize and agricultural skill, as well as to natural sterility and un favourable situation. In the rallies and (lips, which arc narrow, and of no great extent, the soil is chiefly of a stiff retentive clay ; in the declivities it has an admixture of light loam ; and on the high grounds it is uniformly thin and excessively poor, yielding little except ling, heath, and moss. The farmers here depend more on their stock than on cultivation. They raise a sufficient quantity of corn for their own consumption ; and pay their rents principally by the profits derived from the sale of cattle and horses bred by themselves, and of sheep, which they have in pretty numerous flocks. The breed of black cattle is much the same with that of Pem brokeshire and Cacrmarthenshire. They arc small, but well made and hardy, and answer much better for the butcher than the dairy. Formerly all England to the south of the Trent was supplied with black cattle front this quarter ; and it is still looked to by dealers and dro vers as a kind of nursery for these animals. The native
unmixed breed of sheep are very small, long legged, nar row on the chine, of larions colours, sonic With horns, ;Ind many without them. There are also a good many pigs reared. These, indeed, always form a pall of the farmer's stock, though they are not found to be a eery prolitahle concern. In the south east of this division there are some pi( res of ground inclosed, and well tivated ; and there is a larger portion of good pasture and meadow here than is generally to be found in the ueivhbourhood. The kinds of grain produced in the upper district arc the same as those pi oduced in the lower, with the addition of rye, whic,i is raised here iu considerable quantities. The waste lands in Cardigan shire arc very extensive. including those tracts which are but partially cultivated, they may be estimated as amounting to nearly the half of the county. A large pro portion of them, however, if not fit for the plough, might be planted with great advantage. Indeed, improvements of this kind have been already set on foot, and are ad vancing with a rapid progress. The climate is mild and temperate, varying a little according to the elevation of the ground, the distance from the sea, and the state of cultivation ; not so cold as in the midland counties, nor so humid as in the western coasts of England ; and, upon the whole, favourable both to health and husbandry. Car diganshire used to be considered as so barren and unpro ductive, that it was proverbially called by the people or the neighbouring counties, the Devil's Grandmother's Jointure. But it is gradually falsifying that reproachful appellation ; and though it can never, perhaps, vie in fer tility with regions that have been more favour ed by na ture, it promises soon to hold a respectable place among those districts which arc distinguished by agricultural improvements. The principal ground of hope rests in the institution of an Agricultural Society, consisting of the most intelligent gentlemen and farmersin that quar ter, which has already done a great deal of good, and from which a great deal more is to be expected ; because, ac cording to Mr Malkin, it is formed " on a better plan, and founded on more rational principles than that of any county in South Wales." The principal rivers in this county are the Tivy, the Rydol, and the Ystwith. The Tivy, which forms the greatest part of its southern limit, rises out of one of the many small lakes which are collected in the hollows on the eastern side. It runs over a very rocky and irregu lar channel till it reaches Ystrad Flwr, when it assumes a more settled course, and, passing by Landbcder, at the border of Caermarthenshire, becomes from thence the boundary between the two counties, till it falls into the Irish sea, about two miles below Cardigan. Tin; Rydol rises on the south-west side of Plynlimmon, and, after running south and south-west, discharges itself into the Irish sea near Aberystwyth. The Ystwith has its mouth, as the name of Vie town denotes, at the same place with the Rydol, though it takes its rise from among the hills in the eastern district. Beside these, there are some streams of smaller consequence; and, as might be ex pected from the nature of the country, a vast number of rivulets. Indeed, the authors of the Agricultural Survey tell us, that, " exclusive of springs upon the hills, there is no valley without a river or a brook; and scarcely- a glen, or what we call a dingle, without a stream sufficient to turn a mill." These must be considered as great advantages, both for watering the soil, where irrigation may be useful, and for driving corn mills and other kinds of machinery. At the same time, they are frequently productive of much injury. Though, in dry weather, these are very inconsiderable, yet, after storms, or continued rains, they become formidable tor rents,—rush with terrible impetuosity through the deep narrow chasms that are formed by the hills,—are pre cipitated sometimes in the form of tremendous cas cades,—bear away before them every thing that lies in their was ,—and even tear up the fertile soil of the ral lies, substituting in its place nothing but barren gravel and stones.