40 Report on Messi's. Front and MiddleditcK s 
around the house, presumably in the best condition, produced 
the miserable yield of 12 bushels of wheat, and 20 of oats in the 
year that Mr. Prout took possession. As might be anticipated, 
a heavy outlay was required before much retuj-n could be drawn 
from such a property. About 16/. per acre was expended in 
draining, cutting outfall ditches, grubbing up and levelling 
old fences, making roads, adding to and repairing buildings, 
and fallowing foul land. Mr. Prout as well as his son, Mr. 
William Prout, have, most obligingly, given me much informa- 
tion relating to their improvements and farming, and furnished 
me with the following details of the cost of these preliminary 
improvements : — 
£ 
£ 
. 2700 
or f)cr acre G 
450 
1 
Eoads, reservoirs and pumps 
900 
2 
Cottages, luncheon-room and walls 
450 
1 
6 
£7200 
16 
The old farm-house, barns, and yards stand rather towards the 
northern boundary of the farm. A new house has been talked 
of, but Mr. Prout, when he makes his frequent visits, is still 
content with the accommodation furnished by several rooms 
in the old dwelling, permanently occupied by the bailiff. But, 
solicitous for the comfort and convenience of his labourers, 
he has built and improved three commodious cottages. The 
home barns, chiefly constructed of wood, and thatched, being 
of little use for the storage of corn, are converted into 
spacious, airy, loose boxes for the cart-horses. An outlying 
barn is employed as a manure-shed. To ensure convenient 
water-supply, new wells have been dug and old ones cleaned 
out. In one enclosure, where the water frequently wept forth, 
stunting or destroying every crop, a brick reservoir, capable of 
containing 15,000 gallons of water, has been made ; and into this 
is fixed, handy to the road, an elevated iron pump, under which 
the water-carts supplying the engine are conveniently filled. A 
great deal of labour and several hundred pounds were expended 
in grubbing up the unsiglitly hedge-rows, and levelling the ugly 
l)anks, which cut the farm into fifty-one enclosures. Laboriously 
with horses this reclaimed land was j)l()ughed, and brought into 
good cultivation ; and it now adds about 18 acres to the produc- 
tive area of the farm. 
The land, gently slojung, lies tolerably well for draining, but 
the former outfalls were indiflerent ; the bush-drains, which, as 
elsewhere in the locality, had been dug in some of tlie wettest 
places, did little good ; and, in spite of ridging up in narrow 
