Dairy and Stock Farms. 
517 
fields, in all 29 acres of free alluvial soil lying by the river- 
side, are cultivated on the four-course rotation — green-crop 
(chiefly Swedish turnips, with an acre or two of potatoes), wheat, 
seeds and oats. The land was perfectly clean, and the crops, 
especially the green crops, were very good. The grass-land, 
which, with the arable, has been drained wherever necessary by 
the tenant (the landlord providing tiles) — full of good and useful 
growth — has evidently improved under Mr. Mackereth's manage- 
ment. A long and narrow piece belonging to another proprietor, 
which, with a right of way to it, lies in the very midst of the 
farm, shows by its condition the original unimproved condition 
of the pasture. 
The grass-fields are all provided with drinking-places, natural 
springs or drainage-water having been used to supply small 
troughs on the level with a constant stream. There is a tidy 
little outlying homestead with barn and tie-up house for cattle, 
small stable, and implement-house. Except this, there is nothing 
in the landlord's equipment of the farm calling for especial 
notice. Nor is there anything requiring engravings or illustrations 
to accompany this description. A plan of the farm now and at 
the commencement of the tenancy would indeed show how com- 
pletely Mr. Mackereth has in that time re-arranged it. But it 
will suffice to say that the 45 fields which he found are now 
only 23 in number, and that 2^ miles of old fences have been 
removed, and new fences in most admirable condition — for 
which quicks and posts and rails were allowed by the landlord 
— have been substituted for them. Straight lines of perfectly 
clean and well-grown thorn fences now divide the farms into 
fields varying from 7 to 17 acres in extent. 
A very modest cottage-like farmhouse is in part surrounded 
by the cow-byres, which stand under a lean-to roof against its 
walls. The pigsties are not far off, and the drinking-place for 
the cattle is also close by ; and in winter the whole work of cow- 
feeding and dairy management is immediately at hand ; but 
were it not for the cleanly and careful superintendence, a 
nuisance might easily be created. Some additional shedding is 
now being erected near the house : but, on the whole, the farm 
owes more to the tenant than to the landlord ; and it is sur- 
prising to see the first place in so severe a competition won in a 
case where so little of the farm equipment deserves any particular 
praise. 
Mr. Mackereth keeps what must, on the whole, be pronounced 
the best, and, for the acreage, the largest stock of cattle and sheep 
which the Judges saw. There is an expenditure of about 11. an 
acre in cattle-food and manure ; and the two-year-old heifers, 
generally 10 in number, are put out to tack during the summer 
