538 The Berkshh'e Farm Prize Competition, 1882. 
genial seasons of the past four years have materially affected the 
stiff, cold, low-lying lands, by reducing their fertility and afford- 
ing no regular opportunity for thoroughly cleaning the land ; 
and this has only been accomplished by the display of great 
energy in seizing upon and making the most of the few favour- 
able intervals for such purposes. 
The production of milk in Berkshire has been considerably 
extended, and the sale of it forms a very important item in the 
receipts of those farms where it is cultivated. It would appear 
from the Agricultural Returns that cattle are slightly increasing 
in numbers ; the breed most in repute being large-framed 
animals of good Shorthorn type. Sheep, according to the same 
returns, have decreased from 1880 to 1881 by 18,220, and statis- 
tics recently published in the ' Times ' give the reduction of 
sheep in thirteen years, 1868 to 1881, as 113,000, or approxi- 
mately one-half the total number of sheep now in the county : 
and this reduction has taken place, notwithstanding an ex- 
tended area of sheep-producing crops within the same period 
of 21,000 acres, and an advance in the price of mutton of 
2|c?. per pound. 
The Judges arranged to start on their first inspection on 
Monday, December 12th, but Mr. Long was unable to accompany 
us owing to a severe attack of illness, and consequently on that 
occasion we were deprived of the benefit of his experience ac- 
quired by similar engagements in the Fen and other districts. 
Mr. Parsons and the reporting Judge, however, met at the Great 
Western Hotel, Paddington, on the evening of the 11th, and 
left by the first train the following morning for Slough, to 
commence our labours. The week before St. Thomas's Day is 
not the most agreeable time for examinations of the kind we 
had undertaken, yet, upon the whole, we were highly favoured in 
the weather, and were able " with narrow search and with inspec- 
tion deep" to survey the fallows, roots, and newly sown wheat, 
and estimate the winter management of the live-stock. The 
whole of the arable land was walked over, except the last field 
on the Saturday afternoon, whence we were driven by a per- 
fect hurricane of wind and rain, which, in spite of umbrella and 
macintosh, bid defiance to our advance. Our exertions during 
the day made the repose of the evening most enjoyable, when, 
divested of muddy boots and outer garments, we had leisure to 
refresh exhausted nature and quietly review the lessons of the 
day ; probably the least pleasant part of our experience was 
the inevitable " Quarter to six, sir," from the porter in the 
morning, and the start for our destination, with the stars still 
shining through the frosty air, or the prospect obscured by a cold 
drizzling rain. 
