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X. — The Amount of Capital required for the Profitable Occupa- 
tion of a Mixed Arable and Pasture Farm in a Midland County. 
Ey the late CilAULES Wratislaw. 
Prize Essay. 
I SHALL strictly .adhere to the first rule laid down by the Society, 
that all information contained in the Prize Essay shall be founded 
on experience or observation, and not on simple reference to 
books or other sources. In specifying the cost of many of the 
various items of cultivation, 1 shall set down the sums which I 
paid myself for the same items by valuation when I entered upon 
my present farm, and 1 shall take the cost of the remainder from 
my day-book. 
I do not think that in i-eality there is much difference in the 
amount of capital required between an entry at Lady Day and an 
entry at Michaelmas. In the first case the farmer will no doubt 
be sooner able to convert his live-stock and part of his corn into 
money ; but then he will have to pay the outgoing tenant for all 
the cultivations up to that time, which, in the latter case, he will 
effect himself in all probability in a better manner, as having a 
more direct interest in the result. In the latter case, although 
he will have to pay down one half-year's rent, yet, as a counter- 
poise, he will have the advantage of purchasing his live-stock on. 
better terms than if he had to go into the market when cattle of 
all descriptions are at their highest price ; and, if a prudent man, 
he will remember that, under any circumstances, he will have 
one whole year's expenses and but one harvest. 
The farm now in my occupation, in the county of Warwick, 
was undoubtedly at one time a cold, wet day ; but, under the 
influence of drainage and cultivation, it may now be described 
as a very retentive loam, having a subsoil of blue lias clay, with 
veins of sticky yellow clay coming within ten inches of the sur- 
face in many places. This may therefore be considered a type 
of the moderately-rich clay-lands of the county. It is rather pecu- 
liarly situated, being bounded on the eastern side by a gravelly 
soil, from which it is divided only by the high-road ; while the 
farm to the west can be worked with one horse less in a team, and 
gradually slopes away towards the far-famed Dunsmore Heath. 
For the sake of convenience, and using round numbers, I shall 
suppose that this farm is only 200 acres in extent, divided into 
twenty fields of 10 acres each, of which 100 acres are arable, 
and the remaining 100 acres pasture and upland meadow. Sup- 
pose then a farmer to have the offer of this farm at Lady Da}', 
and to be called upon to consider what money he will require to 
pay the outgoing tenant for cultivations, for the purchase of live- 
