492 Report on the Warioickshire Farm-Prize Competition, 1876. 
stamp of beauty which is one of the principal features of the Mid- 
land districts. Fine elm and oak timber abounds on the sand- 
stone soils in particular, and gives character to the scenery. The 
climate is pretty equable, and, in the absence of any consider- 
able hills, the variations in the ripening of crops, &c., are more 
attributable to the diversities of soil than to elevation. The rain- 
fall is moderate, and averages somewhat more than in Eastern 
England ; but far less than in the Western and South-western 
Counties. I find by Mr. G. J. Symons' Tables that at 
Leamington the rainfall for the last fourteen years, as taken by 
Mr. S. U. Jones, has amounted to an average of 2 5 "34 inches per 
annum. The greatest amount fell in 1875, viz. 36'32 inches, 
and the driest year was 1870, which only yielded 17*79 inches; 
The most prominent agricultural features, to the eye of a 
stranger, are easily enumerated. Land which will breed and 
feed fine large sheep to perfection in 14 months ; which will 
grow with very little external aid fine crops of wheat, barley, 
beans, and peas equally well — and on which 50 tons of mangels 
of the finest quality can be produced to the acre without any ex- 
travagant outlay in manures — is of a kind which would be highly 
esteemed in any part of England. It is hardly too much to say 
that this is the common character of the better sorts of land in 
South Warwickshire, and the general impression is, therefore, 
that of extreme fertility. The farming seems to vary more 
than the soil ; and although our immediate business lay with 
land in the highest state of cultivation, we could not shut our 
eyes, in the numerous drives which it fell to our lot to take, to 
the fact that a good deal of land was ill-farmed, and indeed the 
evil plight of some we saw could scarcely be exaggerated. 
The policy of making " two-year-old beef " has lately excited 
much attention in the agricultural world ; but whatever may be 
thought of that, there can be little question of the advantage, on 
suitable land, of making one-year-old mutton ; and it may be 
doubted whether this practice has been carried in any part ol 
England to greater perfection than in Warwickshire and the 
neighbouring counties. In the month of May, travel where one 
will, the busy sound of the shears is heard, and grand indeed 
are some of the animals which come forth from the process. The 
sheep of the county are the Oxford Downs, though these are not 
universal, Shropshires being adopted on some farms, and various 
mixtures of Cotswold blood on others. But, whatever the breed, 
the object always seems to be to make fine heavy sheep at 
12 or 14 months old ; and Stratford Market has of late years 
acquired some celebrity for its exhibition of this description ol 
mutton. From April to June about 1500 sheep are disposed of 
l)y auction every week, and these are almost exclusively clipped 
tegs. Mr. Ilutchings, one of the auctioneers, informed me that 
