548 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1885. 
endorse, the principle which, to some extent and in certain cases, 
influenced the Judges to condemn farm practices which appeared 
to them a departure from the line indicated, as being, under all 
the circumstances, the most profitable and desirable to pursue. 
Such were the consumption of hay and treading down of straw 
by stock, when, in their opinion, both the hay and straw might 
have been sold and a greater value of manure brought back on 
to the farm, to the advantage of the tenant's pocket and with 
greater benefit to the farm, and also without any of the risks of 
disease or accident involved by the alternative system. This 
may appear at first sight a reversal of the usually accepted 
theories as to sale of produce ; but, taken in conjunction with the 
fact of the great facility with which manure can be loaded back 
from the town, the keeping of a large head of live-stock suffers 
by comparison ; though, doubtless, it will still remain in the 
future as in the past, the safeguard and sheet-anchor of the 
ordinarily situated farmer. 
Probably few counties could compare with Lancashire in the 
rapidity with which her trade and population have developed 
themselves in the last century, especially as regards the in- 
crease of population to the square mile ; and as this subject 
has a tolerably direct connection with the system of farming 
which has been thereby induced, a few figures on the point may 
be of interest. In ' Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in 
England,' by Arnold Toynbee, it is stated that between the 
years 1700 and 1750 the population of Lancashire increased 
from 166,200 to 297,400, or 78 per cent. ; and the same author 
further states, that whereas in 1700 Lancashire was not one of 
the twelve most densely populated counties in England to the 
square mile, in 1750 it stood fifth largest on the list with 156, 
and in 1881 it stood third largest on the list of twelve counties 
with a population of 1813 to the square mile, — an increase for 
the last thirty-one years nearly double that of Middlesex per 
square mile in the same length of time. 
That portion of Lancashire which exhibits the best and most 
enterprising farming is, roughly speaking, a belt of some ten or 
fifteen miles in width, which is continuous with the coast from 
Fleetwood on the north, to Liverpool on the south side, where, 
however, it becomes very narrow, and thence follows the north 
side of the Mersey to Manchester. This belt is composed of 
New Red Sandstone, and the greater portion of the competing 
farms are situated upon it. The soil, however, in some cases, 
especially in the neighbourhood of Lytham and Southport, does 
not exhibit the red colour or gravelly clay texture which is a 
common feature of this formation in the Midland counties, but 
is here a black peat moss, resting on sand, and affording a deep 
