584 
Report on the Farm-Prize Competition 
Classes 1 and 2 was made in rather unfavourable weather, 
between May 23rd and June 1st. On this occasion all the 
farms were closely inspected. 
The final inspection was made between the 1st and 7th of 
July. On this occasion all the farms in Classes 1 and 3 and 
three farms in Class 2 were inspected. The weather was most 
favourable for the Judges' work, though too hot and dry for 
some of the competing farms. 
After the Judges of Classes 1, 2, and 3 had come to a decision • 
as to their awards, they met the Judges of Class 4, for the pur- 
pose of awarding the Champion Prize. Each set of Judges 
selected one farm as the best of those under their inspection, 
they then viewed the farm which they had not previously in. 
spected, and afterwards in the general meeting the merits of the 
two selected farms were discussed, and a decision arrived at. 
It has been the usual practice of reporting Judges to present 
a sketch more or less elaborate of the farming of the counties 
in which the competing farms lie. As the writer of this Report 
made his first tour in Northumberland and Durham in December 
last, as his opportunities of observation were almost entirely 
confined to those districts in which the competing farms lay, 
and as some of the best-farmed districts of Northumberland 
were entirely unrepresented in the competition, it must be under- 
stood that in the following account of the farming in Northum- 
berland and Durham he has drawn largely upon other sources 
of information than his own personal observation. 
NOKTHUMBEKLAND, 
This, the northernmost county of England, has for its 
boundaries the German Ocean on the east, Scotland and Cum- 
berland on the west, and Durham on the south. 
It contains 1,290,312 acres, or more than 2000 square miles. 
In respect of area it ranks fifth among English counties, but so 
large a portion of it is hill and moor that in respect, of culti- 
vated area * its position is twelfth. 
Population. — Taking the county as a whole, it is rather thinly 
populated, as will be seen by the following figures : — 
Northumberland. 
Durham. 
England. 
434,024 
867,580 
24,008,391 
Number of persons per square acre 
•34 
1-34 
•75 
* CuUivalnl area is used to describe land included in the Agricultural 
Returns as under all kinds of crops, bnre fallow or grass. 
