Report on the Waricichsliire Farm-Prize Competition, 1876. 509 
permanent value lias no doubt been greatly increased, and its 
! employment of labour perhaps nearly doubled, with a profit to 
all concerned. 
ISlr. Stilgoe's relations with his labourers seem of a most 
admirable character. The cottages are pretty, neat, and with a 
good garden attached to each. His men, notwithstanding the 
upstir of recent years, have nearly all remained with him since 
he entered on the farm ; and this circumstance will, perhaps, 
more than any other, testify to the esteem in which he is held 
as a kind and liberal master. If we have one little criticism to 
offer on this department, it is on the quantity of beer allowed 
in hay time and harvest. A gallon of beer a day for men and 
half-a-gallon for women and children, seems an excessive quan- 
tity to squander in drink, and it will, no doubt, be to the 
advantage of the labourers themselves when it is found practic- 
able to commute this system into a money payment. 
To conclude with a brief summary of what we found at Lower 
Clopton :■ — A perfectly clean farm, well horsed, well manned, well 
j cropped, and weJl mastered. Economical (though by no means 
stingy) management visible everywhere. Difficulties of season 
and of soil triumphantly overcome. Labourers well paid, well 
housed, comfortable, tidy, and interested in their master's success. 
A business-like system, extending to the smallest details of the 
farm-management ; and last, but not least, a production of meat 
and grain which few farms of the same quality can rival or excel. 
It should be mentioned that Mr. Stilgoe keeps no bailiff, and 
is therefore himself responsible for the conduct of the business, 
in all its branches. 
The farm accounts are most accurately and carefully kept, 
and every information we required was readily forthcoming. 
I Ample testimony was therefore afforded us, in addition to 
that of ocular evidence, that all the conditions required by the 
( Society, and especially that important one of " General Manage- 
ment with a A'iew to Profit," were amply fulfilled. 
It would be most unjust, as well as ungallant, to conclude this 
Report without an allusion to those matters of more purely 
domestic management in which Mrs. Stilgoe's co-operation is 
visible. The pleasant, roomy house at Lower Clopton and 
its surroundings bear distinct evidences of feminine care and 
1 industry ; and its pretty trimly kept garden, its poultry pens, 
with their numerous occupants of the pure Dorking variety ; 
and its beautifully kept and managed dairy, all correspond 
with the more important features of the farm, and harmoniously 
combine to fill up the picture of order, of neatness, and of judicious 
and profitable management, which would be incomplete were it 
not extended to these minor matters. 
