The Farm Prize Competition c/1890. 
781 
In 1885 the landlord erected a handsome and commodious 
house and outbuildings, also sundry sheds and farmbuildings. 
The tenant at the same time built a laundry and greenhouse, 
and made other improvements at a cost of about 1,100?., and 
for these and certain drainage, compensation is provided at the 
end of the tenancy. The farm buildings are, from the circum- 
stances of their history, placed at four different points of the farm, 
but are none the less convenient for the pi'ofitable working of 
the land. They are fitted with various convenient appliances, 
some of which are Mr. Yosper's own designs, for economising 
labour, notably (1) a chaff elevator at Hardwicke, with 
shoots for delivery in three directions ; (2) a Dutch barn at 
Merafield with corrugated iron roof, of which the centre sheet 
lifts up to allow hay, &c, to be passed through from the 
elevator ; (3) a cement trough arranged specially for washing 
roots and potatoes when required, but at other times forming a 
large drinking trough ; (4) a broad step ladder from the centre 
of the feeding passage of the cowshed, by which ready access can 
be had to the granary and fodder store above, but which can 
be lifted out of headway when the feeding passage is required 
for other purposes. These and many other somewhat similar 
items are all proofs of a master mind bent upon accomplishing 
his tasks at as small an expenditure of labour as possible. 
Arable Land. 
The cropping in 1890 is as follows, viz. : wheat, G9 acres ; 
barley, 56; oats,- 11; potatoes, 14; vetches, 7; swedes and 
turnips, 37 ; mangel, 38 ; cabbage, 9 ; clover, &c, cut for hay, 
52 ; rotation grasses grazed, 143 acres: total, 436 acres. 
The rotation followed, with the one exception referred to 
further on, is (1) mangel, (2) wheat followed by trifolium, 
(3) roots, (4) barley or oats, (5) seeds which remain down three 
or more years according to circumstances. The mangel get a 
heavy dressing of dung (30 to 40 loads per acre of home-made, 
or 40 to 50 loads of town dung or scavengings from Plymouth), 
and in addition 3 cwt. each of mangel manure, bone meal, and 
dissolved bones drilled at the same time as the seed. Of the 
latter 9 lb. per acre is sown, and as early in April as the land can 
be got ready. In the autumn, befoi'e any frost may be expected, 
the roots are pulled up and carted to the yards or store sheds 
near the buildings and consumed there, the practice in Devon- 
shire being to commence giving mangel much earlier than is 
usual elsewhere — say about Christmas. Some are retained for 
the ewes and lambs in the following spring, and so plentiful had 
