208 The Farm Prize Competitions. 



about the county that fog-grass and similar weeds were apt to 

 dominate the grazing, and these were conspicuously absent at 

 Forton. The lighter pastui-es are dressed with 4 cwt. slag, and 

 4 cwt. kainit once in four years, whilst on the bottom meadows 

 it is the custom to apply 8 cwt. slag and no kainit. There was 

 a pasture newly laid down to take the place of the field broken 

 up, which hardly seemed to be up to the high standard of 

 success achieved on the rest of the holding, but the explanation 

 was difficult to find. The tenant has constructed some 

 admirable concrete drinking places in some of the pasture 

 fields, feeding them with land drains, and the advantages of 

 such an arrangement over the dirty, trodden up places so 

 commonly encountered need no emphasis. 



Coming to the live-stock, the Judges commented specially 

 on the excellence of the shire horses. Mr. Everall showed a 

 beautiful lot of shire mares, foals, and young stock ; four young 

 geldings bred on the farm looked good enough for any work, 

 either on the land or on the streets. There was a dairy herd for 

 milk selling of about thirty Shorthorn cows and heifers in milk, 

 which is being built up both through the bull and with the 

 assistance of milk records. The cows are nearly all home-bred, 

 and records of all the milk yields are kept. A famous Cranford- 

 Waterloo bull, a rich red, was running with them, and with 

 this management the herd would be eligible for the herd book 

 after four years, whilst all the young stock would have milk 

 pedigrees in addition. The bull is as full of milking blood as 

 possible, yet equally as capable of getting beef stock as manj^ 

 bulls kept where the rearing of stores is the only consideration. 

 It was noteworthy that though so keen about pedigree, Mr. 

 Everall was not afraid to poll his cows to prevent injury to 

 themselves. On these good pastures the cows are not cake fed 

 until September, and the maximum ration in the winter is 31b. 

 decorticated cotton cake and 2 lb. maize meal. Heifer calves 

 are saved only from the best milkers. The steers are bought 

 in ; there was a grand lot of Hereford-Shorthorn cross-breds, 

 and these were doing very well on the lower fields. Many of 

 them were put on the grass in mid-April, and went out fat after 

 three months' grazing. There was also a wonderful run of 

 well-bred Hereford heifers, bought as barren, many of which 

 proved in-calf ; this seems only explainable on the assumption 

 that they were sold from fear of abortion. Only the bullocks 

 are allowed cake on the grass. About forty bullocks are fed in 

 stalls in the winter, and these get about 2 lb. decorticated 

 cotton or linseed cake, and 4 lb. maize meal. 



Mr. Everall maintains a registered Shropshire flock of about 

 120 ewes ; the best ram lambs are sold for stock as yearlings, 

 whilst the rest are wintered on roots and sold fat in March. 



