360 
Isle of Wight. 
features to which all sjood husbandry here will, sooner or later, 
conform. His Royal Highness is now in advance, of his neigh- 
bours ; but he is not now so much in advance as he once was ; 
and the time will come — and this will be the best proof of the 
practical character of his system — when he will be no longer in 
advance, but when all will move forward in the same front 
rank. 
This farm — Avhich is to be considered, not so much a model, 
as a scene for experiments, which others may see, and, if they 
like, imitate — comprises a little over 800 acres, of which one 
half is arable, the other half pasture (chiefly park). It has been 
in his Royal Highness's occupation sixteen years. The soil is 
no better than that of the neighbourhood, and has already been 
described. Yellow clay and clay gravel are the subsoil ; the 
same materials, improved by cultivation and exposure to the 
atmosphere, compose the surface soil. On the higli grounds the 
soil is generally lighter ; on the low grounds it is yet more clayey 
and stiff. The first operations were thorough underground drain- 
ing (4 feet deep, and from 18 to 40 feet apart, according to the 
subsoil), throwing the fields together (they are now from 15 to 
20 acres each), and the construction of the buildings. These 
last were built in the year 1852, and are not now so novel in 
their excellence as they once were. They consist of two blocks, 
Avith the roadway between them. One block measures 140 feet 
by 100 feet ; the other is a square of 100 feet, with a straw house 
appended 15 feet long and proportionately broad. On your right, 
as you enter, is the largest, and, as it may be called, the breeding 
block. It consists of a yard for the young and dairy stock, sur- 
rounded on two sides by a lambing shed, piggeries, sheep, and 
pig yards (adjoining the shed and pigstyes), artificial manure 
shed, breeding sows', and bull houses. On the third side are the 
cow and calves' houses. The dairy cows are tied two and two in 
a stall, stand on brick, and are cleaned out daily. There are 
also two large boxes for cows about to calve, and adjoining is a 
provision store for the dairy stock. Opposite the dairy cows are 
sunk boxes for feeding cattle, and boarded grating for sheep feed- 
ing. No sheep were there at the time of my visit, in the winter. 
In this climate you do not want to house sheep, and on this soil 
you do want the manure in the fold. Along the whole of this third 
side, between the cows and the fatting stalls, runs the tramway, 
across the road, into the opposite and the smaller block, which may 
be called the grazing block. Here are to be seen twenty-four 
fatting boxes for bullocks, occupying one side of the quadrangle, 
and communicating with root, chaff, and oilcake stores. The 
food is all cut and prepared by the steam-engine (fixed on the 
side adjoining, at right angles) which of course drives the thresh- 
