52 Report on Messrs. Prout and MiddleditcKs 
Abstracting the seven years' accounts from 1868 to 1874, in- 
clusive, the results stand thus : 
£ s. d. 
Receipts 4809 11 5 
Payments 398i 0 0 
Profit £825;^11 5 
An annual profit of 825/. derived from 450 acres of rather 
second-rate clay-land, and maintained throughout seven years, 
affords satisfactory testimony to Mr. Prout's system. That the 
consecutive corn-crops sold off year by year have not exhausted 
or deteriorated the land is evident from the improved quantity 
and quality of the growing crops, and very notably also from 
the increased value of the farm, which, instead of the 33/. origin- 
ally paid for it, would now bring double that amount. Indeed, 
so recently as February, 1875, the estate, purchased at less than 
16,000/., has been valued by a very competent surveyor at 
31,000/. This enhanced value represents a handsome return, 
not only for permanent improvements, but also for the meagre 
profits of the earlier years of Mr. Prout's occupation. Very 
few land investments, under any description of management, 
pay, like Mr. Prout's, a fair interest on outlay and double their 
value in thirteen years. 
Mr. Middleditch, settling himself down to farming in 1866, 
after several years' commercial pursuits in India, was struck 
with the accounts of Mr. Prout's agricultural successes : a survey 
of the clean and bountiful crops at Sawbridgeworth made him 
an enthusiastic disciple ; and he determined to prosecute the 
system at Blunsdon, three miles from Swindon, where he had 
just acquired 160 acres of heavy clay-loam. But this small holding 
affording inadequate scope, he purchased four other conterminous 
farms, making, with 44 acres of land rented, an aggregate of about 
600 acres arable and 100 acres pasture. He rehabilitated an old 
farmhouse, surrounded it with a pleasant shrubbery and garden, 
planted a belt of j)lantation as shelter from the south-west winds, 
which drive up rather severely some 35 miles from the Bristol 
Channel. From his elevated healthy site on the coral-rag 
ridge, he overlooks his compact farm, commands a magnificent 
view of the beautiful valley of the White Horse, counts upwards 
of a dozen village churches, and in bright weather catches the 
light reflected from Cirencester College, eleven miles north- 
wards. To the east of the house lies the pleasant village of 
Blunsdon, quaintly-built on sloping limestone banks, with 
springs of splendid water trickling forth from almost every 
garden. 
