508 Rcj)ort on the Liverpool Prize-Farm Competition, 1877 — 
white breed, which average 11. apiece, half being bred on the 
farm (2 sows are kept), and half bought as young stores, at 
about 11. apiece. The other receipts from the farm come from 
20 to 25 acres of wheat, 30 to 40 acres of oats, and 6 acres of 
potatoes ; also from the sale of 30 tons, or more, of hay and 
straw every year, and from the poultry-yard and garden, both of 
which are most profitably productive. 
For an outlying dairy farm, with no special market advan- 
tages (it is seven miles from Chester) the Stapleford Hall farm 
appeared to the Judges to be fully rented. The labour bill in- 
cludes, besides about 400/. paid directly as wages, the board 
of three men in the house. And nearly another rent is paid in 
purchased cattle-foods and manures. The land is worked with 
two pair-horse teams, an odd horse and a hack ; and a colt is 
reared most years, for which a good price is ultimately bbtained. 
We had the pleasure of walking over Mr. Lea's farm on three 
occasions, in December, May, and July, respectively. On the 
first occasion, most of the cows were still more or less in milk. 
They were receiving uncut roots, hay, and straw in the stalls, 
besides about 150 bushels of grains weekly ; and 35 gallons of 
milk were sold daily at lOd. a gallon. Cheese-making had ceased 
some time, and would not be resumed till March. There was a 
capital lot of 8 to 10-months-old heifer-calves in the sheds, and 
of yearlings in the fields, the latter 3 to 5 months gone in calf. 
The young wheat was looking well. — In May the cows were in full 
milk. They had received some ground oats, Indian meal, and 
cotton-cake, after calving, along with mangolds and hay, until 
turned out to grass. The fields were full of growth ; the wheat 
and oats most promising ; the potatoes had been got in well ; 
there was a capital lot of fatting hogs in the sties. — In July the 
wheat and oats bid fair to realise all their promise. The former 
has certainly turned out a great crop. Potatoes were strong and 
full of healthy growth. Mangolds nearly covered the ground. 
Swedes, in various stages, were coming on, some already thinned, 
others suffering from the fly. The clover had been cut and made, 
and Burgess and Key's mower — in its 11th year — was making 
capital work in the meadows. The cows were receiving about 
2 lbs. of undecorticated cotton-cake apiece on the grass, a 
practice which might be carried out on a more liberal scale, for 
it increases the milk and improves its quality, at the same 
time economising the grass, and improving both the land and 
the stock upon it. This year's calves were not looking well, 
being weaned on whey. They receive new milk for three or 
four weeks, and then get whey, along with oil-cake meal and 
hay and grass. The food was purging them, and several of them 
looked badly. 
