( ) 
lESSnyS nnU <KEportS prizes for 1 862.— All Prizes of the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England are open to general com- 
petition. Competitors will be expected to consider and discuss the 
heads enumerated. 
I. AGRICTTLTURE OP STAFFOEDSHIRE. 
Fifty Sovereigns will be given for the best lieport on the 
Agriculture of Staffordshire. 
The principal geological and physical features of the county should be 
described ; the nature of the Soil and character of the Farming in its 
different districts or natural divisions ; its Live Stock ; Implements ; 
■ recent changes of Farm Management ; Imi^rovements lately intro- 
duced and still reqiiired ; remarkable or characteristic Farais ; the 
influences exercised by neighbouring mines and factories on the 
cropping of the soil, the value of land, the rate of prices and 
wages, and on the demand for timber, and consequently on the 
profitable management of woods and plantations. 
n. SUBSOILING VERSUS DOUBLE-PLOUGHING. 
Twenty Sovereigns will be given for the best Essay on the com- 
parative merits of Subsoiling, Trenching, and Double- 
Ploughing. 
The comparative cost of these several modes of cultivation ; their influ- 
ence on different crops, on the germination of seed-weeds, and the 
destruction of root-weeds ; the supplies of manure required in each 
case are to be contrasted, and the most seasonable manner of con- 
ducting the work described. 
m. STEAM-POWER AND THRESHING-MACHINES. 
Twenty Sovereigns will be given for the best Essay on the com- 
parative advantages of Fixed or Moveable Steam-Power, 
and of the Single and Double Dressing Threshing- 
Machine. 
The cost of repairs and allowance required for depreciation in each case 
are to be carefully examined ; the labour and waste incidental to 
threshing in the field and in the barn ; and the applicability of the 
steam-power to other purposes should be contrasted : in the case of 
the threshing-machines, the weight of the macliine and the require- 
ments of the market in respect of samples should be considered. 
