Prize Competition, 1885. 
129 
history of one or two of the fields as examples of the manage- 
ment. Walking round the farm, and hearing the history of 
each field, we get the impression that every separate piece has 
been carefully and energetically managed. A field of 13^ acres, 
full of grass, had been laid down three years before, after having 
been ploughed for five years out of old pasture. It was boned 
on the clover-root, and again, in the autumn of 1884, mown twice 
the first year, and subsequently grazed, and now looks like good 
old pasture. No. 21, an old permanent pasture, had been 
boned in 1884 with 8 cwt. per acre — drained by the tenant ; 
drain-ends made up with blue bricks, in perfect order ; fence at 
the plantation end taken out by the tenant ; several marl-pits 
filled up, new fence planted (double) and well protected. 
It will be understood, without going farther into detail, that 
here is a farm carefully and successfully cultivated, well stocked, 
yielding profit to landlord and tenant alike, and deserving, in 
our opinion, the first place on the list, good as many of the 
other competitors are. Mention must also be made of the 
extraordinary garden attached to Mr. Lea's house, from which 
plants and vegetables, asparagus, and rhubarb and early potatoes, 
young fruit-trees, and fruit (damsons, apples, gooseberries), to 
the extent sometimes of 100/. a year, are sold. 
We were instructed to take notice of any instances of praise- 
worthy agricultural labourers on the farms we visited, to whom 
the Certificate of the Society might be awarded. We found on 
Mr. John Lea's farm that William \ ernon had been a labourer 
there for over fifty years. He is now seventy-four years of age ; 
he has always done most of the stacking and thatching on the 
farm, and is a very good workman at any farm-work. He was 
forty years in a club at Tarvin, till it was broken up, and is 
now earning 125. a week — a worthy man, who has done his 
duty in the station to which he belongs — and he well deserves 
the distinction which the Society offers. He has a cottage and 
2^ acres of land. 
Mr. Lea has two labourers who have crofts with their cottages 
— one has 4 acres all grass, keeping two milking cows, and 
rearing a heifer each year, and sometimes two — of course with 
the aid of many months hired feed elsewhere during the summer, 
Of the other crofter-holding, whose tenant received the above 
award for long and faithful service, we may give a more detailed 
account. He holds 2^ acres, including his garden, at a yearly 
rent of lOZ. 10s. He has 2 acres in grass, and a rood in garden 
ground. Last year he kept one cow, and made 15Z. 10*. by 
butter. He also sold a heifer for 11. 10s., and pigs for 8?. His 
garden yields him an independent profit, and he keeps some 
poultry ; and he considers that his labour, on the whole, is equal 
VOL. XXII. — S. S. K 
