536 Report on the Farm Prke Competition in 
fortunate as to be able to visit them. The site of them was 
originally a barren hillside covered with gorse and heath, some 
seven miles long, and 400 acres in superficial extent. It was 
all laid out many years ago in the best possible manner for its 
purpose at a cost of some 40,000Z., and the waters of a small 
stream, charged with the sewage of the neighbouring town of 
Mansfield, pass over them. The success of the enterprise is 
said to have been so pecuniarily good as to justify the large 
outlay. 
The farmers of both counties admit that they possess good 
educational advantages for their sons in well- endowed grammar 
schools, which are for the most part within easy reach. 
Only one attempt at ensilage was met with, and that was 
nothing more than the extemporaneous use of a common store- 
house for the purpose of preserving a few green tares that they 
might be got sooner off the ground to make room for earlier 
turnips after them. 
The American chilled ploughs appeared to be everywhere 
coming into universal use, and whether on good land or on the 
lighter soils were always most highly spoken of as great savers 
of horse and hand labour, and as in every respect more efficient 
implements than those of the older patterns. 
ilents, it is very generally believed, have been reduced some 
25 per cent, to 30 per cent, in the last 10 years throughout the 
county. There is a widely prevailing impression that less meat 
and corn are produced than formerly, and that in most districts 
o'her indications of declining capital are unhappily to be ob- 
served ; at the same time it was mostl}^ admitted that the year 
ending in April last had been a decided improvement on many 
of its predecessors. 
In the Table on page 539 as many of the leading statistics 
respecting the occupations as were freely furnished to the Judges 
by each of the competitors can be ^een at a glance and 
are arranged for convenient reference and comparison. The 
number of stock entered in the schedule, as found on the 
different farms in the summer months, must not be taken to 
represent in all cases the total number of such animals in 
possession of the farmers. Some two or three of them had out- 
lying grass-fields, not entered in the competition, and which 
the Judges did not see, carrying stock which were, or were to 
be, wintered on the competing farms. The above does not, 
however, apply to either of the two prize farms. 
Again, in all cases the year 1887-88 gave better, in some 
cases considerably better, pecuniary returns than any preceding 
pnes. It is yer^ important thei'efore to observe th{it where 
