in NottinghmnsMre, Lincolnshire, &c. : Classes 2 (tnd ■). 71 
The amount paid for wages in 188G was 22dl. Os. id., and 
234:1. lOs. lO^d. in the year following. Two men are engaged 
by the year at 16s. weekly, with cottage rent free. One is 
boarded in the farmhouse, and is paid 9/. 10s. with board. 
Others are hired by the week, and the ordinary wage in the 
district is 13s. Gd. in summer, 12s. in winter. 
Mr. Duckering admits that he has not been very strict in 
keeping his farm accounts, but has depended solely on the 
valuation at Lady-day for ascertaining his financial position. 
So far as could be judged from the data supplied, the farm is 
financially quite successful. It is well-managed, and is all in 
good order. 
Mr. Duckering has laid out on buildings and general re- 
pairs a good deal that is generally done by the landlord, and 
the buildings are all in beautiful order. They are all painted by 
the tenant once in two years, and everything is kept in excellent 
condition. Crops generally were looking very fair, considering 
the quality of the soil, which was so light that in one case 
a barley-field was much damaged by being blown. The land 
generally was clean, with the exception of a little couch about 
the sides and corners of the fields, and the farm as a whole was 
quite worthy of commendation. 
Bahbington Springs, Marnham, Neivarh, NotUngliamsJiire, 
ocmqned by Mr. John William Simpson. 
This was another Commended farm. Its area is 227 a. 3 r. 
16 p., of which 97 acres are arable and 131 acres grass. Mr. 
Ernest R. 0. Oust, Manthorpe, Grantham, is owner, and the 
farm is held on a yearly tenancy, not under the Agricultural 
Holdings Act, but, according to the custom of the district, with 
six months' notice on either side, and with permission to sell 
a certain quantity of hay. The rent is 200^., to which sum it 
was reduced from 293^. ten years ago. Rates and taxes come to 
about 24Z., and there is a voluntary school rate of 10s., but no 
tithe. 
The farm is two miles from a railway station, and nine miles 
from Retford. It has a heavy soil, inclining to a nasty poor 
clay, on a clay subsoil. The climate is variable, but the average 
annual rainfall is under 28 inches. Mr. Simpson also occupies 
the farm of Woodcoats, 82 acres in extent, which adjoins the 
competing farm. 
The house, which faces south, stands in a field near the road 
leading from Tnxford to Marnham, which passes close to the 
farm. Behind the house is Babbington Springs, well-known as 
