554 
Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1885. 
Class I. — First Prize, £50. 
Mr. W. Gore Ashton, Rohy Farm, Liverpool. 
Arable 160 acres. 
Grass 6 j> 
Total . . . . 166 „ 
This farm, the property of the Earl of Derby, is hired from 
year to year, with no restrictions as to either cropping or sale of 
produce. Rent and tithe, 391/. 
The present tenant has occupied this farm for thirty-six years, 
and succeeded his father, so it may be presumed that there is a 
good understanding existing between owner and occupier. The 
system of farming adopted by Mr. Ashton sounds simple in the 
extreme ; it consists of selling at Liverpool everything which 
the farm produces, and loading back with manure, principally 
from stables using sawdust-bedding, but also from cattle sheds 
and latrines. The only exceptions to the carrying out of this 
system to the letter being in the case of autumn aftermath, 
which is let to cattle salesmen for grazing purposes, and realises 
about 60Z. a year, and also the produce of six acres of permanent 
pasture used for the grazing of stock. 
Mr. Ashton's farm is mostly heavy ; a small portion is peat 
moss, and the remainder light land, consisting of a mixture of 
marl, sand, and gravel. Upon the farm there is a very large 
excavation from which marl has been carted and mixed with 
lime, at the rate of about 1 load of lime to 5 of marl ; and a 
large portion of the land has received a dressing of this compost, 
at the rate of about 25 tons per acre. For this special operation 
Mr. Ashton has, on three occasions, received the prize given 
by the principal local Agricultural Societies. 
In the field of Farm Prize Competition Mr. Ashton is no 
novice. Since the year 1850 I was informed that he had 
received from the Royal Manchester, Liverpool, and North 
Lancashire Agricultural Society, no less than five prizes for 
the best-cultivated farm. These, together with the first prize 
this year of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, offered 
by his own landlord, the Earl of Derby, must fairly entitle him 
to be looked upon as a veteran who has fought and won many a 
well-earned victory, though happily in a bloodless battle-field. 
And in truth Mr. Ashton, though not so young as he was, looks 
like proving an awkward antagonist for many a long year to 
come, in any similar contest. And if the secret of his success 
lies more in one direction than another, it is undoubtedly in the 
marvellous cleanliness of his land. Indeed, " though he said it 
