Report on the Farrri'Prize Competition of 1885. 559 
to a good crop ; but of this we had no evidence, as the weather 
was too dry to admit of the operation of transplanting. This 
field was perfectly clean, and so were the adjoining fences; both 
had been well cultivated. 
From this field we entered a 28-acre piece of first-year seeds 
after oats. In April Mr. Ashton intended to top-dress this 
field ; the seeds then looked well, and in July a heavy crop of 
hay had been carted in excellent order, and the clover was shoot- 
ing away again vigorously. 
It may here be noted that " top-dressing " does not by any 
means always imply the application of artificials ; of these 
manures Mr. Ashton uses very little. The top-dressing he 
believes in is the one before referred to, viz., sawdust-manure 
soaked with liquid manure, though this year he has applied 
some few tons of nitrate of soda. 
The next field we saw, 19 acres of winter wheat, " Hunter's 
White," after lea, to be followed by a fallow crop, was a very 
clean, level, good crop, and very much better-headed than the 
majority of wheats we met with. At the southern extremity of 
the field, however, the land ran to some weak shallow spots ; 
and here the crop, though perfectly clean, was very much 
lighter ; but for this the yield might have touched 6 quarters an 
acre ; short and imperfectly-grown stems were here conspicuous 
by their absence. 
An 18-acre field of second-year seeds scarcely looked so well 
in April, as the subsequent good crop, in process of cutting in 
July, would have justified. The hop-clover had developed 
somewhat abnormally, and rather to the detriment of the heavier 
clovers (not an uncommon feature, I think, this season). Mr. 
Ashton, however, says he likes it, and he ought to know best, 
though on this point opinions would no doubt differ. 
Sixteen acres of first-year seeds were good on the lighter side 
of the field, but hardly so good on the stronger land. 
Three acres of second-year seeds in July we saw in process 
of cutting — a heavy well-mixed crop to sell green. 
A 12-acre field of White Poland oats after lea looked 
exceedingly promising over the greater portion of its area ; 
it showed, however, some weak places where the crop is short 
and thin, looking as if the soil was shallow. Still these spots 
were not large, and will not prevent a heavy yield of possibly 
7 quarters, or more, per acre. 
An acre and a half of potatoes adjoining the farm-house 
garden were very clean, healthy, and promising. Mr. Ashton 
finds it advisable to buy a truck-load of about 4 tons of seed- 
potatoes direct from Scotland every year, and from the produce 
of these he saves seed for the following year's crop. 
