170 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition, 1885. 
during the busy time. Celery plants are reared in carefully 
protected beds, and pricked out 8 inches apart, in rows 5 feet 
apart, and ultimately sold at Is. 9rf. to 2s. a dozen. This is 
followed by cabbages, planted as soon as the land can be got 
ready after the celery. The cabbages, receiving 5 cwt. of nitrate 
per acre in March and April, are ready for sale in May at 'dd. 
a dozen. A late potato is dibbled in between these cabbages in 
April, and a crop of 6 to 8 tons may be dug in the autumn. 
Here therefore, in two years, off one acre may be realised 
from more than 1000 dozen of celery, 50Z., and from 1200 
dozen of cabbages, 45Z., and from 6 to 8 tons of potatoes, 15Z. 
— 110/. in all. This, of course, is only the possible return ; 
but actually between 40/. and 50Z. worth of produce may thus 
be generally obtained per acre. The expense, of course, is very 
great. The celery receives 50 tons of dung per acre, in furrows 
drawn 5 feet apart, in the deeply ploughed garden-mould, as 
it has long since become. Over this, covered by the plough, 
the plants are pricked out 8 inches apart, and gradually banked 
up, as they grow to a great size, weighing ultimately about 
6 lbs. per plant. The purchases of manure include horse 
manure, 160 to 200 tons a year, from Farnworth and Bolton, 
14 miles away, where the celery and cabbage crop is sent; and 
40 to 50 tons of shoddy from Oldham, delivered at the rail- 
way station near : 25 cwt. of nitre, too, is bought every year. 
The celery, which receives most of it, comes once in every 
three years — a portion of altogether new land being also occa- 
sionally brought into use as the demand for the crop grows. 
It follows potatoes — " Magnums," which have received a " light 
dressing" of 15 tons of dung per acre — and it is followed^ as we 
have said, by cabbages and potatoes; so that the land is worked 
very heavily. And considering that 200Z. a year is said to be 
spent in manure, the " farm," for which 50Z. a year is paid in 
rent, is a mere factory for converting purchased raw material 
into celery, cabbages, and potatoes. There is a certain quan- 
tity also of land, as we have said, in oats and clover, peas and 
beans, and swedes and mangolds ; but the only noteworthy 
feature is the market-gardening, which we have described. 
Mr. Gibbins has lived on this farm for six years. His father 
and brother held it for twenty-seven years previously. He has 
drained the whole of it the last three years, 3 feet deep and 
5 yards apart, the landlord finding the tiles. He has also taken 
out 70() yards of old fences and planted 500 yards of new. 
The leading feature of the agriculture which this Report 
describes — viz. the extraordinary development of land value at 
their own risk by yearly tenants — thus receives probably its 
most extraordinary illustration in this, the last farm on the 
list of twenty-two to which reference has been made. 
