520 
The Farm-Prize Competition, 1884. 
land is plagued with poppies and spurrj. Great judg- 
ment is exercised as to grazing. Sheep and cows are never 
mixed. 
Live-Stoch. — On our second visit in ^lay, we found the 
following stock, which were almost identical, except in the 
matter of calves, with what existed in January : — 
Cattle. 
50 Cows in-Milk. 
10 Yearling Heifers. 
13 Heifer Calves. 
2 Bulls. 
75 
Horses. 
2 Draft horses (1 Man). 
1 Stroug half-bred horse. 
1 Nag. 
4 
Dairy Management. — The plan of the homestead (Fig. 1, 
p. 521) gives a good idea of the accommodation provided. The 
great business at Dearnford Hall is dairying, cheese being the 
principal product. The cows, of shorthorn type, are a capital 
lot, carefully bred with a view to good milking properties. We 
were very favourably impressed on our first visit, when the 
animals were in the stalls ; but their great excellence was more 
evident when we saw them in the cow pasture. There we in- 
spected fifty grand cows and heifers in full profit, and found 
every animal meritorious. Great care is exercised both in the 
selection of sires, which are not necessarily, though generally, 
pedigree stock from milking tribes, and the cows are drafted if 
they are not quite satisfactory. The heifers, which we thought 
a capital lot, are served about July and August, so as to produce 
their first calf when about two years old, and many of these 
youngsters made a remarkable show for their age. Most of the 
animals are bred on the farm ; a few are occasionally purchased. 
The cows calve in the spring, mostly before cheese-making com- 
mences. All the best heifer calves are reared, and the bull calves 
are fattened up to the time of cheese-making ; after that, they are 
sold as soon as removable, two or three days old, at from 21. to 
21. 10s. each. During the winter the cows, although mostly dry, 
or at any rate not giving much milk, are well fed, viz, long hay 
or straw, and 56 lbs. of swedes, given whole to the cows, and 
sliced or fingered for the heifers, with 3 lbs. of mixed cotton- 
and linseed-cake. In summer, cows in full milk have as much 
as 6 lbs. a day of decorticated cotton-cake. This extremely 
liberal scale of feeding explains the extraordinary amount of 
Sheep. 
62 Ewes. 
74 Lambs. 
136 
Pigs. 
5 Breeding Sows. 
59 Fat and Store Pigs. 
64 
