The Farm-Prize Competition, 1884. 
509 
undesirable, it is questionable whether a matter of such proved 
interest and value to the general body of members should be 
optional with the Local Committee at all. For though public 
opinion has on these two occasions overborne local feeling, it 
may not always be so energetically or skilfully directed. And 
the suggestion thrown out by Mr. Jasper More at the General 
Meeting in London in December last, that in future the offer of 
prizes for farm competition should be compulsory on the town 
which is visited, is certainly deserving of consideration, as 
it would ensure a continuance of this most desirable element, 
and would remove all uncertainty from the minds of would-be 
competitors. Those through whose exertions the farm-prize 
competition has been maintained will, we trust, feel that the 
result fully justifies their efforts ; and that the information con- 
tained in Mr. Bell's admirable report of farm practice in York- 
shire, and the following effort to convey a faithful account of 
what we saw in the course of our inspections of the competing 
farms in the Midlands, will have due effect in strengthening 
public opinion as to the desirability of making this a permanent 
feature in the annual role of utilities carried out by our Great 
National Society. 
As will be seen from the appended list, the entries were more 
numerous than on any previous occasion. The competition in 
the first two classes for Grass and Arable Farms was excellent, 
and quite sufficiently close. In the small farm division we are 
sorry to report only two entries, as, judging from the great 
interest attaching to them, and the variety of practice they 
illustrated, it would have been desirable to have seen more of 
the sort, and especially representatives of the wilder hilly 
districts. 
Those who are acquainted with the geological features of the 
counties will realise that our work lay principally on the Old and 
New Red Sandstone formations, and though the surface-soils were 
seldom derived directly from either rocks, the superficial beds 
when of a drift character partook of the characteristics of the 
parent source. The exceptions were a couple of farms on the 
Wenlock shales. The soils on the sandstone formations are, 
though variable to a degree, speaking generally, of a fertile 
character ; the lighter parts very suitable for arable cultivation, 
and the stronger soils capable of growing good grass under 
skilful treatment. If we add to this a mild and rather moist 
climate, and a due proportion of grass to arable, we have some 
of the conditions which have been so far favourable to farming 
during recent years, so that there are few signs of that terrible 
depression which has left an all but ineradicable mark on many 
less favoured localities. But the great reason for this happy 
