50 
JReport on the Farm Prize Competition 
& Co., Gainsborough, was therefore erected to draw the water 
out of the ditches into the great canal, known as the Forty-foot 
River. Since that time, the Governors of the Charterhouse have 
enlarged the pump and engine to fourteen horse-power, and 
now it empties water into the river at the rate of thirty to forty 
tons per minute. Any accumulation of water, therefore, is now 
hardly possible. The Governors have spent in all 2,000L in fen 
draining, and it is believed there is not now a better drained fen 
than their estate in the county of Lincoln. Mr. Wadsley him- 
self has expended from 80?. to lOOZ. in making drains three feet 
deep, so that his farm is all thoroughly drained. 
As already stated, the first impressions of the Judges on 
visiting the farm were very favourable. Every feature indicated 
thorough supervision and careful management. Gates, .with 
oak posts, all found by the tenant, were in perfect order. Gate- 
ways, laid with stones, were kept sufficiently hard for any kind 
of traffic. The hedges round the arable fields were trimmed 
with conspicuous neatness, and all kept in excellent order. 
The wide ditches, a prominent feature of the fen lands, had been 
thoroughly scoured, and no weeds were allowed to grow along 
the banks. The land is naturally good, and is kept in a high 
state of cultivation. In December, the stubble fields were clean, 
with only a little couch occasionally round the ditches. Wheat 
for the coming year was clean and looked promising. Swedes 
had been almost a failure in 1887, owing to the excessive 
drought ; but a field of mangold, drilled on the flat, twenty 
inches apart, had yielded a good weight per acre. That field 
was so dry when seen by the Judges in December that it could 
not be ploughed. 
On both divisions of the farm the five-course rotation is 
adopted. The cropping on the fen land consists of (1) mangold 
and coleseed, (2) oats, (3) wheat, (4) clover, and (5) wheat. 
On the high land, the succession is, (1) turnips and swedes 
(2) barley, (3) barley, (4) red clover, and (5) wheat. In a fair 
average season, the land carries good crops, but a dry summer 
is undoubtedly most suitable for wheat on the fen land, where 
very large returns are then obtained. The average yield of the 
several crops is : wheat 5^ quarters per acre, barley 6, oats 9, 
beans 5 quarters ; mangolds 41, and swedes 24 tons per acre. 
In 1888 the cropping consisted of wheat 52 acres, barley 26, 
oats 26, artificial grasses 32, mangolds 7, swedes 10, coleseed 
or rape 18, and beans 9 acres. Some details concerning the 
different crops and their appearance at the time of our last 
visit will best illustrate Mr. Wadsley's style of farming. 
Thirteen acres of Eldred's wheat, white and red mixed, after 
