534 
Fanning in Devon and ConvroU. 
The Prison Farm. Prince Town*. 
A record of the farming of Devonshire would be incomplete 
without some reference to this Farm, where the unwilling labour 
of our convicts, condemned to penal servitude, is turned to good 
account in the reclamation of land. But space will not allow of 
more than a mere summary of the management which here has 
converted a large tract of poor waste land into some of the most 
productive enclosures in the kingdom. 
The farm, which lies in the wilds of Dartmoor, at an eleva- 
tion of some 1,100 to 1,600 feet above the sea level, is held by 
the Government authorities from the Duchy of Cornwall under 
an improving lease. It comprises in all 2,000 acres, the whole 
of which was mere common or unenclosed waste land prior to 
1850, when the Dartmoor Prison, originally erected for the con- 
finement of prisoners captured in the French and American 
wars, was converted into a convict settlement. Then commenced 
the work of reclamation, which has now extended to 1,300 acres, 
and is being continued at the rate of 25 acres yearly. The 
land is divided into square fields of from 15 to 20 acres by high 
stone walls built of granite boulders raised in the prison 
quarries, or from the land as the work of reclamation proceeds. 
Broad and excellent roads have been made, intersecting the 
farm where needed, and are being extended as required. The 
land is first trenched 2 to 2i feet deep, the lower layer being 
merely turned over, and not brought to the surface, whilst the 
surface sod is buried about a foot in depth. Where necessary 
stone drains are put in at 3 feet or deeper, according to the 
position of the clay in which they have to be placed, and at 
intervals of from 30 to -40 feet. 
The first crop is usually rape or rye (according to the time 
of year at which the land was ready). This is fed off by sheep, 
and a crop of swedes taken, which again is fed off by sheep, 
getting also cake and corn. Seeds are then sown for a short 
term (2 or 3 years), and afterwards broken up preparatory to 
the land being cropped under a short rotation, and ultimately 
laid down to permanent pasture. Swedes are the first crop in 
this rotation, and are followed by barley, with which are sown 
the seeds for permanent grass. The mixture for the latter 
which is found to answer best is as follows : — Perennial rye- 
grass, 8 lb. ; Italian rye-grass, I lb. ; cocksfoot, cow-grass, 
white clover, and trefoil, 3 lb. each ; meadow-grass, timothy, 
and meadow foxtail, 2 lb. each ; various fescues and alsik- 
clover, 1 lb. each ; in all, from 34 to 36 lb. per acre 
If the herbage fails, or becomes unsatisfactory, the land 
