Somersetshire Farm-Prize Competition, 1875. 
595- 
and fed off create a continual strain on the farm, and relatively 
form a much greater burden, head for head, than under the cir- 
cumstances before referred to. The solution of the question of the- 
exact power of production of each farm under existing circum- 
stances would be extremely complex, and the conclusions arrived 
at highly problematical ; nevertheless, the stock-bearing capacity 
evinced by these Somersetshire farms, notwithstanding the ano- 
malies referred to in the bases of computation, seems to determine 
itself very much according to the acreage of the arable land as 
compared to pasture. In most instances the numbers of stock 
returned increase in proportion as the pasture-land exceeds the 
tillage. This, I repeat, may be accounted for partly by the in-- 
cidental circumstances alluded to, a fact that bears out in some 
respects the truth of the aphorism quoted ; it may likewise 
be attributable, in some degree, to the well-known fertility of 
the grass land of the countj-, and it will probably, in no small 
measure, be found to arise from the excellence of the arable 
culture where the returns are highest. 
Viewed from every aspect, the returns of these farms appear 
satisfactory by comparison, and are creditable to the occupiers. 
Whether the increase of arable culture is in time to come to 
be the medium of a large augmentation of meat production or 
not I cannot venture to prognosticate ; but the fact of the large 
percentage of additional outlay per acre in the labour-bills 
of the various farms already referred to, typical, no doubt, of 
identical results in other directions, coupled with other diffi- 
culties in obtaining satisfactory profits from arable culture, have 
been instrumental in causing a considerable area of land to be 
laid down to permanent pasture throughout the county of Somerset 
in the course of the last few years. This, in a county where 
roots are so readily raised, and intermediate crops so satisfac- 
torily grown, seems the more surprising, except from the fact 
that increased production involves a larger outlay. But this 
outlay should be profitable, and the supposition that it is not 
may, possibl}', be premature ; it therefore seems to me not alto- 
gether improbable that the present state of things has been brought 
about quite as much from the somewhat strained relations that 
have of late existed between employers and employed as through 
the increased wages of the labouring population. 
One or two more points call for a remark. 
The existing customs are extremely variable and incommo- 
dious. Possibly suited to the times they were arranged for, they 
are now altogether out of unison with the spirit of the age. The 
tact of an incoming tenant having a right of pre-entry upwards 
of six months prior to the completion of the outgoer's term, 
and the latter having the power to remain in part-occupation of 
