566 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1885. 
Before entering on the crops, it may be stated that for the 
state of his occupation, roads, fences, and general neatness, !Mr. 
Sherwin must be given the greatest credit ; the new gates all 
over the farm also look remarkably well, but for this we must 
ffive Lord Esrerton some credit. 
The rotation of crops is usually as follows : — 
Seeds, laid down for two and sometimes three years. 
Oats. 
Potatoes, turnips, and mangolds. 
Wheat, sown down with seeds. 
Potatoes were occasionally diseased, until within the last 
three vears, since when new seed has been used, with the effect 
of checking it. 
A 13-acre field, on the north side of the stackyard, in old 
pasture, was broken up after liming, and trench-ploughed last 
autumn, and now carries 8 acres of very good swedes, which 
have received 5 cwt. of dissolved bones per acre : also 2 acres 
of kidney potatoes set with cabbages in the sides of the drills. 
Eighteen acres in the next field of Regent and Magnum 
potatoes looked remarkably well, on a well-cultivated deep sandy 
loam oat-stubble, mucked last autumn and ploughed in, 20 tons 
to the acre, and set with 3 cwt. of dissolved bones : this field is 
clean and promising. Some half-acre of waste land on the 
north side of it, noticed by the Judges in April as somewhat 
unsightlv, in July was all cleaned, and planted with potatoes 
and cabbage — a great improvement. 
Sixteen acres of white Poland oats, after two vears' lea twice 
rolled, were good, but rather dirty on the north-east and north 
side, while the remainder of the field on better land was about 
the best piece of oats we met with. 
Sixteen acres of " cut " oats, on the north side of this field, 
after two years' lea, was a moderate crop ; uneven, but fairly 
clean. 
Fifteen acres of late-sown oats to the west, sloping down to 
the river Bollin, after one year's lea, looked upon as the worst 
land on the farm, certainly carried the worst crop : it was terribly 
grubbed and bad all over, very much choked with annuals ; 
the crop would have been better out of sight in a silo, and 
the land ploughed for tares or white turnips. 
The work done in permanent improvements on this field, 
namely, taking out an old fence, levelling, and filling-in, cost 
the tenant 80?. ; the field has also been recently limed. 
Sixteen acres of Black Tartar oats were a verv heavy crop on 
the east side, and good all over, except towards the west end of 
the field, where they turned lighter ; the whole was fairly clean. 
Twenty-four acres, in second year's seeds, had been top- 
