558 
Re^Jort on the Farm Prize Competition in 
flock of ewes is kept at Lyndhurst. All the tillage of the farm, 
which is beautifully clean, is done in first-rate style. Liming is 
largely practised, and gas-lime at a less cost is often used with 
no ill effects when sufficiently exposed to the air. Much of the 
land is very light and poor, and seeds are so very precious that 
they are often sown without a crop to ensure a better plant. 
The hoggets were of a saleable description and of great weight 
in the spring, although Mr. Bowles has much contempt for high- 
priced rams, being perfectly content with any half-bred sheep — 
of the Norfolk or similar cross from which he breeds — with suffi- 
cient colour of face and plenty of size and substance. The 
draught horses are, perhaps, as good as could be found any- 
where upon land of a similar class, and some are bought and 
sold again at good prices. Some very fine Lincoln bullocks 
were gi'azing in the yards in the winter. It was clear that 
Mr. Bowles' heart and great energies were very much in his 
work, and that precision and efficiency were thoroughly en- 
forced in every detail. 
Mr. Beasley, of Harston, who is a land agent as well as a 
farmer on his own account, occupies another of the farms we 
had the pleasure of highly commending. His house is charm- 
ingly situated at the edge of a deep and pretty valley which 
skirts a part of the farm. From the opposite side rise the well 
wooded heights so magnificently crowned with the imposing pile 
of Belvoir Castle, and the whole neighbourhood is hilly and 
picturesque in the extreme. Mr. Beasley's land is on three 
different levels, with a difference of some 500 feet between them. 
Kather less than two-thirds of it is a rich, red, light or mixed 
soil upon limestone rock, and occasionally, perhaps, a little too 
near it. The other third, or rather more, is a very stiff and 
hungry clay, chiefly hanging on the steep side of a valley. The 
greater part of the latter is being gradually laid down to grass, by 
the help of the landlord, as the least of evils for thetn both, and we 
never saw a cleaner, or in any way better, preparation for 
young seeds than on one of these stiff and awkward fields in 
May. The red land grows capital corn, and the annuals, which 
are a great trouble amongst it, are kept down by a very diligent 
hand-hoeing, every acre of wheat and barley being so served. 
Couch is so well under that digging the stubbles in the autumn 
is practised. Farmyard manure is ploughed into the stubbles 
in the autumn for roots, and all the tillage is well performed. 
Potatoes and mangolds are taken after barley, which follows 
roots, other barley following wheat, the rotation being a seven- 
course one. 
The great speciality of the farm, however, is the success of 
