226 The Farm Prize Competitions. 



seen full of rushes, but here they were kept down by skilful 

 grazing and constant attention from the scythe. 



The cattle are bred on the farm, or bought young, and 

 finished off with roots in the winter after one year's grazing. 

 The sheep are of a strictly commercial type, Clun Forest 

 crossed with a Shropshire ram. The "singles" are got off as 

 fat ewes, and the "couples" go off as they are ready. 



Horses need to be good to negotiate the hill-sides, and 

 three are often required in the dung cart. The Judges com- 

 plimented Mr. Marsh on the way in which the harness was 

 cared for, and remarked that at most of the farms visited 

 the work-horse harness was dirty and ill-kept. They note 

 that the farm is hardly adapted for show purposes, but that 

 the tenant deserves every credit for his enterprize and good 

 management in the face of considerable natural difficulties. 



It may be said that the outstanding features of the Farm 

 Competitions of 1914 are the high quality of the live stock in 

 the district, and the comparative indifference to the careful 

 management of the grass land. The locality has more than a 

 local reputation for nearly all classes of live stock, and time and 

 again the Judges in their notes remark upon the excellence of 

 the animals shown to them. As regards the grass land, com- 

 ment has been made upon such customs as alternate mowing 

 and grazing, and on the inclination to allow weeds and weed- 

 grass to reproduce themselves. If these things were noteworthy 

 in the case of the prize-farms, they were even more obvious in 

 the district generally, and they cannot fail to strike the outside 

 observer as matters worthy of consideration and attention. 



Another question that might well engage the attention of 

 farmers is the keeping of records of all sorts. With one 

 notable exception, milk records, departmental accounts, &c., 

 were conspicuous only by their absence, and as was remarked 

 last year, it is questionable whether the time has not been 

 reached in the history of the farming industry at which the 

 wonderfvil practical skill and technical knowledge of the 

 English farmer demands its complement in the more adequate 

 business organisation of the farm. 



The thanks of the writer are due to the Judges, Mr. Alfred 

 Broome, of Preston Brook, Warrington ; Mr. D. E. Byrd, of 

 Spurstow Hall, Tarporley ; Mr. Thomas A. Buttar, of Corston, 

 Coupar Angus ; and Mr. Frank B. Wilkinson, of Cavendish Lodge, 

 Edwinstowe, Newark ; and particularly to Mr. K. J. J.Mackenzie, 

 Reader in Agriculture in the University of Cambridge, for their 

 assistance in the compilation of this report. q g_ Orwin. 



Institute for Research in Agricultural Economics, 

 University of Oxford. 



