The Prize System as applied to Small Farmers in Ireland. 421 
come out well were discouraged. In 1873 it so happened that 
a small sum was added to Lord Spencer's contribution, and with 
his approval 1 divided the whole into five prizes, as follows : — 
Marks. 
First and Second. { £^™ y } 453 each. 
Third. Charles Lampey 398 
Fourth. Thomas Conway, a tenant of the O'Conor Don's .. 2G0 
Fifth. Martin Malony, a tenant of Lord Dillon's .. .. 258 
Several very striking results were observable in that year. 
While Jordan improved his position, Crawley advanced to a 
level with him. 
In the Report for 1873 statistics of only seven farms were tabu- 
lated ; the total marks for the seventh being 225 ; and on the face 
of the return it was observed that the others were so low in the 
scale of merit as to render it unnecessary to fill up the particulars 
regarding their farms. 
Very soon after the result of the competition for 1873 was 
published, the O'Conor Don, M.P., visited Thomas Conway's 
farm. That he was pleased with the industry and merits of the 
man, and convinced of the soundness of the Spencer prize system, 
is evident from the fact that he made Conway a present of 10/. 
on the spot, and that he has since contributed 5/. a year to the 
prize fund. 
Mr. Strickland, J. P., on the part of Lord Dillon has done 
the same thing. 
This led to an increase in the number of competitors in 1874, 
a further increase in 1875, and in 1876 the entries were so 
numerous, that the teacher, Mr. Fallon, had to make a selection 
for me. I inspected 31 farms. 
In my remarks on the effects of the scheme in Parkanour, 
Cornagilta, and Grange, I was able to give several illustrations 
of the progress made ; but in the Loughglynn district every farm 
I inspected in 1876 afforded some evidence of the beneficial 
effects of the system. The whole district has been leavened. 
In 1872 and 1873 farms which were full of weeds, and without 
any freshly sown grass-seeds or roots, were in 1876 clean and 
well cultivated, and had a fair proportion of both classes of crops. 
Farms which in 1873 were so low in the scale of merit that it 
was useless to give statistics regarding them, were in 1876 very 
fair models of good cultivation. 
I shall briefly describe some of the prize-farms ; but, before 
doing so, I may state that there is not in the Loughglynn dis- 
trict the diversity of soils to which I referred in my remarks 
on the Grange districts. As a rule, every farm contains some 
reclaimed bog and some upland. In the west, or Mayo, side 
of the district the huge stone walls which inclose small fields 
