598 
Report on the Farm-Prize Competition 
extensively known is a verv primitive one called a " scrubber." 
It is used lor breaking down the clods before ridging for roots, 
and it does this most effectuallv without pressing the land 
down too much. This implement, which mav be knocked 
together bv anv hedge-carpenter, consists of 8 or 12 deal 
battens laid on one another like successive furrows, and kept 
in their places by cross-pieces on the top. The lower edges 
of the battens are shod with iron. The driver rides on the 
scrubber to keep it down to its work, and the effect of it on 
strong land is quite remarkable. Another very useful imple- 
ment which was observed on several farms was a scarifier for 
use on turnips or other ridges. Instead of a roller which covers 
the whole ridge, two half-rollers are set at such a distance apart 
as to leave the plants untouched. Following these rollers on 
each side of the ridge are little skim-ploughs which shear away 
the earth and weeds from each side of the turnips. One of 
these tools which we saw at work was Anderson s patent, and 
was made by Gregory \Vestoe, South Shields. We understood 
that it cost about 5/. 10s. Another implement which surprised 
us, not by its novelty but by its survival, was the old lever 
turnip-cutter, which has elsewhere been supplanted by the 
rotatory slicers, but is still the cutter in use on everv farm which 
we visited. The following is a description of this implement 
from Morton's ' Cyclopedia ' (voL ii. p. 1037) : — 
This cutter acts by direct pressure, somewhat after the fashion of a nnt* 
cracker ; the one cheek being an open harp of edges arranged in a cup-shaped 
maimer and the other a block fitting those edges so that anvthiog placed 
between the two is forced by the former thiouoh the latter. But one rcot 
at a time is cut, and it is delivered in slices below. Xothing can be more 
wasteful, whether of time or of form, than an arrangement such as this." 
The tool must, however, be a good one, or it would not have 
held its ground. 
DuEHAil. 
Having attempted to give a sketch, though a verv imperfect 
one, of the prevailing characteristics of Xorthumbrian farming, 
it will be necessarv to make some remarks on the agriculture of 
Durham. It may, however, be remarked that much of what 
has been written is equally applicable to all the eastern side of 
Durham, and particularly to that part of it which adjoins the 
Tyne and the town of Newcastle. 
The County of Durham includes an area of 047,592 acres or 
1012 square miles. It is separated from Northumberland on 
the north and north-west by the Tyne and Derwent, and from 
Yorkshire on the south and south-west bv the Tees. On the 
west it is bounded by Cumberland, and on the east by the 
