220 The Farm Prize Competitions. 



of temporary pasture which had been down for four years. On 

 the home farm especially there was a very heavy crop of oats, 

 and the wheat and barley were also very satisfactory, the 

 former particularly on the out-lying farm, where the quality 

 was also unusual for the district. The influence of the Stafford- 

 shire factory towns makes itself felt as at Tibberton, and Mr. 

 Bourne grows a considerable acreage of potatoes and carrots, 

 the latter not quite such a good plant, he said, as he usually 

 expected. 



About 50 acres of the grass land is mown, and this receives 

 farmyard manure and artificials in alternate years ; the pasture 

 receives phosphatic dressings about every four years. Mr. 

 Bourne showed a very interesting piece of grass land, which 

 is now most excellent pasture. Till some few years ago, 

 however, it had been useless, always being wet, his explanation, 

 doubtless a true one, being that it was the doubling of the 

 drains, thus getting them 18 feet instead of 36 feet apart, 

 that caused the improvement. As to the live stock, the 

 horses are Shires of a good class, mostly young and suitable 

 for the farm. There are about eighty cows in-uiilk or in-calf, 

 and, unlike so many farmers of the district, Mr. Bourne goes 

 in for milk selling and not for cheese making. At tlie home 

 farm there was a very good young Shorthorn bull, selected 

 on its reputation for milk on both sides, but once again it was 

 a reputation and not a record. A herd of thirty young cows 

 was particularly good, even for this district of good cattle. 

 Mr. Bourne's management of his calves is interesting, for each 

 of them wears a collar, and is tied up to one of a row of chains 

 with spring hooks arranged round the wall, for a short time 

 before and after being fed from the pail. He finds this is long 

 enough to prevent them sucking one another, whilst it makes 

 them easier to handle for the rest of their lives. On the piece 

 of temporary pasture to which reference has already been 

 made, were some sheep which typified the management of the 

 district. A flock of cross-bred Kerry Hill ewes had been 

 brought in in the autumn and put to a Down ram, in this case 

 an Oxford. The ewes lambed in March, and by June 30, fiftj^ 

 per cent, of the lambs had gone to the butcher, fat. On July 6, 

 another lot were ready to go ; the rest were excellent stores, and 

 jvould be finished off in due course as mutton by Christmas or 

 early in the following year on roots. So well had ewes and lambs 

 been done, that the former were almost ripe for the l)utcher 

 to whom they were shortly to be sent. This system admits of 

 the carrying of a large herd of sheep stock for part of the year, 

 and yet resting the land from sheejD a considerable portion of 

 the time. People unaccustomed to the district would find 

 it difQcult to believe that these small ewes would suckle two 



