540 Beport on the Farm Prize Competition in 
his business too small to receive a considerable amount of 
thought. 
The farm is held from year to year, subject to sis months' 
notice, and the tenant is protected by the usual Notts Tenant 
Right custom. The agreement contains the usual restrictions 
against what is considered unfair cropping and the sale of certain 
descriptions of produce, but they are in no way a hindrance in 
the present case. 
The dwelling-house stands pleasantly upon slightly elevated 
ground, and is well built and comfortable. It is also conveni- 
ently situated. for the farm, which lies all round it. 
Mr. Montagu, of Yorkshire, is the owner of the soil, and the 
occupation has been in its present hands for 20 years. It was 
amongst the very last of the Forest Lands to come under the 
plough, and was enclosed some forty years ago by Mr. Machin's 
father. The present tenant, finding the fields too large, has 
since divided them all into an average size of about thirty acres 
at his own expense. Both the old and newer hedges have 
planted well, and grow with surprising strength, considering 
the nature of the soil. They have clearly been well trained 
from the first, and are kept now in admirable order. 
The soil in question is upon the New Red Sandstone, and con- 
sists of a very light and sandy surface soil above a greater depth 
of sandy subsoil. All of it is of a poor and hungry description, 
and some of it so bad that the Judges do not hesitate to say 
that, had the farm been to let at the present moment, it would 
be difficult to find any man of business, and a stranger to the 
district, who could be got into a second field with a view to 
hiring it. Many of the hedgerows are billowed with soil which, 
from time to time, has been blown from the surface of the fields ; 
and indeed the writer saw a field of barley in May which had 
but just previously been injured from this cause. 
The surprise, therefore, was proportionately great to find at 
the December visit, and in the very dry year of 1887, perhaps the 
finest crop of swedes we ever saw growing. They were of very 
great and uniform size, remarkably even in plant, and of quite 
perfect quality, clear, bright, and almost as fresh in the skin, 
as the choicest of dessert apples. A great part, if not all, of the 
crop was estimated to weigh little, if any, short of 30 tons per 
acre ; and Mr. Machin told the Judges afterwards that a 
measured acre could not be got upon a ton cart 30 times filled. 
The stock of turnips was chiefly " Lord Derby," which is con- 
sidered very hardy, and is in general good favour in the 
neighbourhood. This forest land, when well and generously 
treated, is clearly mu^h adapted for this description of root, and 
