214 The Farm Prize Competitions. 



one in Staffordshire. The Judges awarded the first prize to 

 Mr. Thomas Evans, of DyflPryn, Berriew, Welshpool. This 

 holding lies in the Severn valley on the road from Welshpool 

 to Newtown and Llanidloes. It is situated about six miles 

 south of Welshpool, and rather a shorter distance north-west 

 of Montgomery. It consists of 30 acres of arable land, and 

 54 acres of grass, and the soil is entirely river gravel. The 

 farm house is new, but the buildings are rather old, and might, 

 with advantage, have been placed more centrally. The home- 

 stead is rather far from a good road. The arable land is 

 cropped on a live-course rotation, oats and wheat following the 

 seeds. The whole of it was very clean. This was particularly 

 striking in a field of seeds which had been grazed till June, 

 and was then laid in for seed. It was a very good mixture 

 of red clover and various grasses, and it was not surprising 

 to hear from Mr. Evans that he always had a great demand 

 for seed from leys so treated. There was a ver% even piece 

 of wheat, which was as heavy as could be expected, seeing that 

 it was after barley, and the advantage of placing wheat thus in 

 the rotation is not evident. He had a tremendous crop of 

 barley, but the seed must have been very impure, and it was 

 badly laid, which makes one wonder all the more why he did 

 not take barley after wheat, instead of wheat after barley. He 

 is singular in that he ploughs twice for wheat, cultivating in 

 between the two ploughings, and though there is a market 

 for his wheat straw at 4:1. per ton, he prefers to uBe it at home 

 for his stock. The root crops were just good, and it is possible 

 that on this rather steely land the kainit is applied too late. 

 Two pieces of potatoes, the one from new seed and the other 

 from his own, showed verj' markedly the importance of a 

 change of seed. There was a very fine piece of oats growing 

 for seed, but Mr. Evans was not able to say what variety it was. 



The pastures were very well grazed, particularly the home 

 paddock, and there were comparatively few of the ugly tufts, of 

 which so many were apparent in the Shropshire pastures. The 

 meadow lands showed signs of the need for drainage, yellow 

 rattle and black grass being in evidence. It also showed signs 

 of having had too much nitrogenous manure (farmyard) even 

 for a meadow. A lot of the grass was still uncut, and all the 

 Yorkshire fog was seeding. 



The Judges remarked upon the quality of the horses. 

 There were two vei-j^ fine brood mares with two particularly 

 fine foals, and a pair of two-year-olds, equally good, also the 

 progeny of the two mares, had just been turned off to grass 

 (July) after their first season's work. It seems common in 

 this district to find young horses at work on their second 

 birthday, and certainly these two looked none the worse, 



