The Farm Prize Competitions. 221 



such large lambs, and the percentage of twins was very high 

 indeed, as is almost invariably the case with these half-bred 

 mountain ewes when brought on to the rich pastures and seed 

 leys of the district. 



The herd of sows was very fine and some points of their 

 management most interesting. For instance, Mr. Bourne 

 makes a practice of spaying, and said that it was common in 

 his particular district. He also pointed out a black-faced sow, 

 one of his own breeding, from a sow bred from pure whites 

 for many generations by a boar from a well-known prize- 

 winning herd of large whites; presumably this mismai'king 

 came with a "wide" change of blood. 



The buildings are only moderate, and not quite good 

 enough for an enterprising tenant doing his best to develop 

 his holding in every possible way, and ably assisted therein 

 by his two sons. He has improved the premises at his own 

 expense hj the addition of Dutch barns and sheep and cattle 

 sheds, but it must be recognised that the provision of proper 

 equipment on the holding is the first essential for the maximum 

 production from the land. 



The third prize was taken by Messrs. Richard Preece & 

 Son, of Cressage House, Cressage, and this farm lies nicely, 

 a little south of the river Severn and the road from Shrews- 

 bury to Wenlock and Bridgnorth. It is about twelve miles 

 south-east of Shrewsbury and eight miles south-west of 

 Wellington, with the commanding outline of the Wrekin 

 intervening. It comprises about 450 acres, of which some 

 204 acres are arable land ; the larger part of it consists of a 

 sandy or gravelly soil, good barley and root land, but aV)Out one 

 third is stiff clay. The farm is nicely laid out all round the 

 farm buildings, which are very good, convenient, and up-to-date 

 and capable of housing a large head of cattle. A five-course 

 rotation is followed, with two barley crops following the root 

 crop, no catch cropping is practised except in very early 

 seasons. All the ai-able land was very free from weeds ; the 

 root crops were good, and the barley particvilarly was excellent, 

 this farm like many others in the Severn valley growing a 

 particularly fine sample. On the strong side of the farm the 

 management was equally good, as shown by the heavy crops 

 upon it. With regard to manuring Messrs. Preece apply 5 cwt. 

 of special barley manure, or other artificial, to the second 

 barley crop, and it is their custom to use about 30 cwt. per 

 acre of lime on part of the clover ley before breaking it up 

 for wheat or barley ; in other respects the manuring presents 

 no unusual feature. 



Some of the grass-land on the clay side of the farm is very 

 poor and seems to be water-logged. The Messrs. Preece use 



