^Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire in 1.88S ; Class 1. 509 
best managed arable and grass farms in the counties of Notting- 
ham and Lincoln, together with such portions of the counties of 
Leicester and Derby as are contained within a district of ten 
miles beyond the boundary of Nottinghamshire. 
The competing farms were divided into three categories as 
below : — 
Class 1. — For the best managed arable and grass farm of 300 acres and 
upwards, of which not less than one-half shall be arable. First prize, 100 
guineas ; second, 50 guineas. 
Class 2. — For the best managed arable and grass farm above 100 acres 
and not exceeding 300 acres, of which not less than one-half shall be arable. 
First prize, 50 guineas ; second, 25 guineas. 
Class 3. — For the best managed arable and grass farm above 25 acres 
and not exceeding 100 acres. First prize, 50 guineas; second, 25 guineas. 
The competition in all three classes was limited to tenant 
farmers paying a bond fide rent for at least three-fourths of the 
land in their occupation, no competitor being allowed to enter 
more than one farm for competition. In the event of a com- 
petitor having more than one farm in his occupation, he had to 
declare which of his farms should be entered for competition, 
but at the same time he had to define the whole of his occu- 
pation, both as to position and area, so that the other farms 
might be inspected (though not for competition) if the Judges 
thought necessary. 
So many entries were made for these liberal prizes that it 
became necessary to divide the work cf inspection between two 
sets of Judges, one set taking the 15 farms entered in Class 1, 
and the other set the 20 farms entered in Classes 2 and 3. The 
present Report is concerned only with the farms competing in 
Class 1,' the Judges of which were : — - 
Joseph Martiit, Highfield House, Littleport, Cambs, 
KiCHARD Britten, Abington Grange, Northampton. 
Frederick I. Cooke, Fhtcham Abbey, King's Lynn. 
All the Judges met the Secretary of the Society to receive 
final counsel and instructions on the evening of Monday, 
December 12, and started before daylight the following morn- 
ing on their first round of inspection. 
There is little opportunity in the short days of winter, if the 
work is to be got through in reasonable time, to see much more 
than the buildings, the live stock, and the roots of the several 
farms, with such portions of the grass lands and the remaining 
arable as are necessarily brought into view in the walk. Nor 
' The Report on the other two Classes, from the pen of Mr. Thomas Stirton, 
of Stratton, is necessarily held over until the next number of the Journal — 
Ed. 
