Report on the Farm Prize Competition. 259 



Hoklerness, it has very little in common with the generality of 

 farms in that district. The cropping- of the land is intended 

 by the lease, we understood, to be five-course, but Mr. Lambert 

 has the power to cross crop a little, and hence generally goes 

 on the six-course rotation, which is as follows : — 



1. Bare fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Seeds. 4. Wheat. 5. Beans. 

 (i. Oats or barley, with the intervention of a few roots or 

 mangolds. 



The grass land is not good as a rule ; and part of it is hayed 

 at intervals. 



We may notice here the great lack of trees, hence that of shelter 

 for stock ; this is substituted to a partial extent by large stacks 

 of straw, which are well built, thatched, &c., and then gutted to 

 allow the stock to get inside. As a rule the straw is very 

 plentiful, and at one time it was so much so, that the greater part 

 was burnt. 



Mr. Lambert has at his own cost planted upwards of 1000 

 trees in clumps, which are doing very well considering, and in 

 time will yield a fair shelter for stock on the grass land. 



Horses. — From eighteen to twenty are generally worked, prin- 

 cipally big-boned useful horses ; none are bred on the farm ; they 

 are fed chiefly on old beans, bruised oats, and a little Indian 

 corn, with chaff; they are out at grass the principal part of the 

 summer months. 



About six years ago Mr. Lambert was so unfortunate as to lose 

 his entire stock of twenty-three horses, from glanders ; this, of 

 course, has entirely lost him his class of horses, besides interfering 

 materially in the general management of his land, as the veter- 

 inary authorities would not allow any horses on the farm for 

 twelve months after. 



Cattle. — All are bred on the farm, as pure shorthorns as 

 possible, with the exception sometimes of a feAV calves bought. 

 They are all sold off as stores, the bullocks at a year and a 

 half to two years old, and the heifers in calving rising three 

 years old. There is nothing great to note in the cattle on 

 Sunk Island, though the cows were very good specimens, and 

 also a young bull. 



We feel it our privilege to note here, from the information 

 we gathered from Mr. Lambert, who was most willing to 

 give us the benefit of his experience, that it is almost impossible 

 to graze even store stock on this farm to profit. Mr. Lambert 

 most emphatically stated that if he put so many two year old 

 cattle on to his best grass in May, they would not be nearly so 

 good in October, caused, as he says, by the superabundance of 

 salt water, and lack of fresh ; this is an immense drawback to 

 farming on Sunk Island. We do not see our way clear to devise 



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