Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1886. 581 
important implements that are required on the farm. The 
fame of the Ransome plough and Garrett drill is world-wide. 
In Young's time he was not aware of a threshing-mill in the 
county, and instances a practice then common in the neigh- 
bourhood of Newmarket where wheat for seed was then largely 
grown. The sheaves were opened as soon as got into the barn 
and partially threshed — "topped out" — by which means the 
boldest and best matured grains only were obtained, and the 
sheaves again tied up for threshing at a future time. This seed, 
which was grown on the " White land," was in demand, and 
made high prices to North-country farmers. 
The skill of the Suffolk ploughmen was remarkable in 
Young's day, and no one can pass through the county at the 
present day without concluding that in respect to this the 
mantle of their forefathers has descended to the present 
generation. 
The Competition. 
But to return to the competition ; it is a matter for regret 
that the entries in Class I. were so limited, especially as it is 
well known that within the bounds of the county are many large 
farms whose management, if detailed, would have fully sustained 
the reputation which so long and so generally has been ascribed 
to Norfolk farming, and, moreover, proved instructive to the 
readers of the ' Journal.' 
I must not, however, be understood to reflect disparagingly 
on those farms that were entered ; the management of both 
will be found interesting, and the lirst-prize farm especially 
good ; but it partakes so much of the suburban as to render it 
almost outside the pale of ordinary farming, and hence cannot be 
considered a fairly representative one, or its practice as affording 
a fair reflex of those large farms existing in various parts of the 
county. 
On the evening of Monday, November 16th, the Judges 
appointed by the Society to award the prizes in the Farm Com- 
petition met the Secretary, jNIr. H. M. Jenkins, at Norwich, 
and were by him supplied with maps of the localities in which 
the competing farms were situated, lists of entries, and all other 
necessary information relative to the work they had undertaken, 
and on the following morning they commenced that work. 
The next inspection made commenced on Monday, May 3rd, 
and the final round on July 2nd. 
I may here state that at our second inspection we decided that 
as to the farm in Class III., occupied by Mr. W. S. Grimwade, 
it would be unnecessary to visit it again, and that the same 
decision would apply to Mr. Wm. Webster's farm in Class IV. 
