Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1886. 617 
are practical, and therefore worth recording. He lias had it 
done by the day, closely watching the work, thinking that, of all 
work on a farm, under-drains require most attention. He has 
taken up drains laid by his predecessor, one foot deeper 
in some places than others, with the consequence of sediment 
settling in the lower places and stopping the drains. As regards 
depth on porous and springy land, they cannot, he thinks, be 
laid too deep in reason, in order to keep the springs as low as 
possible. But on strong tenacious clay he thinks that drains may 
be laid too deep, for in wet weather the land becomes so tough 
that the water cannot percolate through it. On this land they 
should be laid closer and " fleeter " than has been the custom in 
some parts. If it is only surface water, why drain it down so 
deep? What we want is to get the water off the land as 
quickly as possible, in order to give warmth to it. But if it is 
locked in, in sand or gravel beds, by gault or clay, " then I 
say cut deeply through the clay, sand or gravel in one uniform 
depth, to tap those beds and draw the water off." 
Rotation of Crops and Management of Arable Land. — The 
rotation of cropping on the farm is the usual four-course one, 
but half of the land in course for clover is sown with peas, and 
sometimes a few beans, the cropping being thus : — 
\ in wheat, 
\ in roots, 
\ in barley, 
^ in clover, 
^ in peas. 
Mr. Procter's reason for this deviation is that clover does not 
succeed with him if grown more frequently than once in eight 
years on the same land. He has tried all kinds, and everything 
fails except rye-grass, but that he does not like. A bad clover 
crop means a succeeding bad wheat crop, and therefore he inter- 
polates the peas, by which means he secures excellent crops of 
red clover, with wheat crops correspondingly good, and is of 
opinion that this practice gets him as much clover, and much 
more wheat, with the pea crop given in, than some of his 
neighbours get from the same acreage who alternate their grain 
crops with clover layer only. His clover crop this year was 
certainly a very fine one ; at our May visit the plant was 
excellent and forward, and in July was secured as hay in a very 
large rick, while the prospect for a second crop was the best 
we saw on any of the farms inspected. It is the power to 
discern and act on matters such as this that renders one man a 
success on a farm where another is a failure. 
Farmyard-manure is applied for wheat on the clover layers 
VOL. XXIL— S. S. 2 S 
