The  Yorkshire  Farm-Prize  Competition , 1883. 
559 
Seeds. — About  one-sixth  of  these  are  cut  for  soiling.  The 
mixture  sown  for  pasture  is  8 lbs.  of  red  and  6 lbs.  of  white 
clover,  with  a few  pounds  of  Italian  rye-grass  added  for  cutting. 
Those  pastured  had  carried  ten  sheep  to  the  acre  since  the 
beginning  of  May,  and  they  were  in  July  going  knee-deep  in 
a perfectly  level  and  most  luxuriant  bed  of  clover. 
Roots. — At  the  January  inspection  we  found  the  turnips  all 
stored ; and  a goodly  lot  they  were.  The  swedes — judging 
from  the  enormous  size  of  those  seen  in  the  turnip-houses, 
which  turned  out  to  be  no  bigger  than  those  hunted  out  of 
the  heaps  at  the  steading  and  in  the  fields— could  not  have  been 
less  than  30  tons  per  acre.  A portion  of  those  on  the  gravel 
are  eaten  off  by  sheep.  The  probability  is  that  this  season’s 
crop  will  not  reach  half  the  weight,  though  fed  as  richly  and 
cultivated  more  carefully  than  the  crop  of  last  season.  Thirteen 
acres  of  the  strongest  portion  of  the  fallow  break  were  never 
ploughed,  but  steam-cultivated  11  inches  deep,  out  of  barley 
stubble,  and  afterwards  cultivated  with  horse-grubber  and  drag- 
harrow. 
Besides  a heavy  manuring  from  the  covered  yards,  3 cwt.  of 
Peruvian  guano  and  4 cwt.  of  dissolved  bones  to  the  acre  were 
applied,  which  is,  to  say  the  least,  liberal  fare.  On  July  the 
13th  there  was  a regular  plant  on  this  portion  just  ready  for 
setting  out. 
The  remaining  fallow  was  fine  friable  soil  ; when  visited  on 
the  26th  of  April  this  was  ready  for  ridging  up  ; potatoes  and 
cabbages  had  been  planted,  and  a few  ridges  of  swedes  already 
sown : the  field  looked  then  in  the  pink  of  condition,  as  fine  as 
meal,  not  a weed  to  be  seen,  and  the  drills  we  saw  were  as 
straight  as  the  course  of  a rifle-ball.  But,  alas  for  human 
foresight ! on  our  return  in  July  we  found  the  turnips  sown  at 
our  previous  visit  had  been  totally  eaten  off  by  the  fly,  and  the 
next  half-dozen  acres  sown  were  ragged  and  weak,  not  having 
been  able  to  withstand  the  cold  dry  weather  in  May.  The  later 
sown  part  of  the  field  drilled  with  hybrid  and  white  turnips  had 
a regular  plant.  By  far  the  most  vigorous  was  a square  of  3 acres, 
which  at  the  time  of  our  January  visit  was  an  old  grass  field  not 
in  the  occupation  of  Mr.  Hutchinson.  It  formed  an  awkward 
corner  in  this  fallow  field.  This  was  pointed  out  to  the  pro- 
prietor, and  Mr.  Hutchinson  was  put  in  possession.  At  our 
April  visit  we  found  that  the  fences,  and  the  old  trees  with  which 
they  had  been  studded,  were  all  cleared  out,  the  field  steam- 
cultivated,  limed,  and  in  process  of  being  drained.  Horse- 
cultivation  was  going  on,  and  the  small  impression  made  on 
the  sods  by  the  harrows  made  this  piece  a matter  of  interest 
