Somersetshire Farm-Prize Competition, 1875. 593 
had also been bought, and fatted on the seeds. The farmyard- 
manure made was small in quantity-, and of an inferior quality. 
The excess of straw was being sold off at remunei'ative prices. 
There were 7 working horses on the land. 
Fences are square-topped. They were closely brushed and 
kept free from weeds. 
Manures and food purchased form an inconsiderable item in 
the year's expenditure. 
Labour is drawn from the district of Curry INIallet, and amounts 
to about 300/. per annum. 
This farm affords food for reflection ; and, perhaps, had he 
been hei'e inspecting, the scientific reporter recommended in 
some quarters as being essential to the embodiment of a farm 
report of any value, might have elucidated some hidden mystery 
useful to the agriculturist. Be this as it may, notwithstand- 
ing the old proverb that " Lime makes the fathers rich men and 
the sons poor," the fact stands out pre-eminently that its con- 
tinued use for many years on this land has not pi-oduced ex- 
haustion, notwithstanding the heaviness of the crops grown, the 
sale of a portion of the straw, and the return of little or nothing 
to the land in the shape of manure, with the exception of top- 
dressing for wheat and the lime used. How long this will 
last remains to be proved ; and I can only attribute the con- 
tinued successful growth of crops to a condition of soil, in which 
the elements of fertility exist to a large extent, but lie dormant, 
or in inaccessible forms of combination, until rendered available 
by the superior cultivation Mr. Mead practises, assisted, probably, 
by the stimulating and mechanical action of lime, and with the 
contingent advantage of a genial climate. 
Conclusion. 
I have particularised somewhat fully the methods of manage- 
ment adopted on the prize farms, because sound principles 
being first acknowledged, it is attention to minutia^ that in a 
large measure insures success in agi'icultural matters. At the 
risk, therefore, of being tedious, the detailed descriptions will, 
I trust, be more serviceable to the younger readers of the 
' Journal ' than if curtailed to a simple statement of results. 
In the case of the Hill Farm, the system of primary reclamation 
I and the subsequent course of cropping were novel to myself, and 
I Jnay be of some interest to others. 
A few observations may be called for from the facts already 
described. Comparisons are proverbially odious ; and a great 
authority once stated that " nothing was so fallacious as facts, 
