638 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1886. 
The cost of labour per acre over the whole farm is 22^. This 
is a very small sum, considering the nature of the soil, and the 
incessant cropping it undergoes. No account, however, is 
taken of what is done by !Mr. Turner or his younger brother, 
but the circumstances afford an apt illustration of the truth of 
Dr. Franklin's adage — 
" He that by the plough would thrive 
Himself must either hold or drive," 
as no other farm in the competition cost so little per acre in 
labour. 
In 1885 cakes were purchased to the value of 151Z. lis. 2J. 
Corn was consumed, partly grown on the farm and partly 
bought, to the value of 344/. The outlay for artificial manure 
was 30/., besides all the manure that could be bought from the 
cottagers. 
Like most of the successful farms in the competition, its 
condition is kept up by the consumption of large quantities of 
corn and cake by live-stock. An expenditure equal to 2/. per 
acre over the whole farm is yearly made for this purpose. The 
practice is sound if judiciously carried out. If cattle consuming 
this and other food pay their way, leaving the manure free, it 
must be more economical than incurring heavy bills for 
artificials to stimulate the growth of root and grain crops. 
This farm is a good example of what may be accomplished 
by sound practical knowledge in combination with industry. 
It is cold heavy land, of second-rate quality. Such land, if 
out of condition, would probably at the present day go begging 
for a tenant ; yet corn crops are produced on it, almost, if not 
quite, equal to any of those grown on the best farms in the 
competition. It is kept in beautiful order, yields rent, and that 
a high one, and we hope and believe affords fair remuneration 
for capital and labour to the highly-respectable and most indus- 
trious family who for thirty-five years have been located on it. 
One of my colleagues supplies the following : " All the corn 
on this farm looks very well indeed, and is very clean. Some 
oats from Webb's seed was the best piece we saw in the whole 
of our visits, and, taking the farm on the whole, it is done as 
well as it can be, and reflects great credit on the young men 
who work very hard at it." 
Two of Mr. Turner's labourers we recommend as worthy "of the 
Society's Certificates of Merit, viz., William Plummer, employed 
as an ordinary labourer, and William Stiff, as horseman. Years 
of servitude of the latter, twenty-three ; and the former has 
worked on the farm for forty years. Both certified to be 
excellent workmen, with good moral characters. 
