534 
The Farm-Prize Competition, 1884. 
This field was partly in wheat, planted on the Lois Weedon 
system, i.e. 3 rows, 8 inches apart, and an equal interval, 
which allows of thorough cultivation. The plants were vigorous 
and promising. In July this crop was extremely luxuriant, 
and if it stands and does not blight — contingencies entirely 
depending on weather — there must be a very grand produce. 
The rest of the field was in mangolds and potatoes ; it had been 
manured, and dressed with from 2 to 5 cwt. of phosphates and 
1 cwt. of nitrate of soda. Both crops were excellent. 
Close to the buildings were two fields, about 22 acres in 
extent, being prepared for, and partly sown with, roots. In 
both cases the corn stubbles were steam cultivated in the autumn 
and spring, then well worked by horse-power, ridged, and 
manured with 12 tons per acre of farmyard-manure, and 5 cwt. 
of Vicker's nitro-phosphate — a manure costing 4/. a ton. The 
land was clean and well worked. The favourable weather at 
the end of June and first week of July, when this district was 
visited by refreshing thunder-rains, had given these roots a 
splendid start, and we found them more than ready for 
singling, and well established. 
The barley and wheat-fields, which were not looking well on 
our second visit, had greatly improved in July, and both pro- 
mised very full crops. The wheat, which had suffered from late 
frosts, had been dressed with 1 cwt. per acre of nitrate of soda. 
The barley and oats, beyond the canal, were splendid crops. 
Indeed the whole of the corn only required fine weather to 
ensure satisfactory results. 
The great feature of management at Winston to which we call 
particular attention, is the treatment of the grass-land, of which 
a hundred acres rest on pure peat : this is not naturally by any 
means rich, and is liable to become covered in a short time with 
ant-hills and Tussac grass. This was the condition of things 
when Mr. Batho commenced his tenancy in 1877 ; and a large 
outlay in what is locally known as bogging and burning {i.e. 
digging out the Tussac grass, &c., burning the same, and spread- 
ing the ashes), and in the seed of Timothy grass to cover the bare 
spaces, has been incurred each year, until, at the present time, 
the land is comparatively clear of these pests. The average 
cost of such work is 30s. an acre, and requires repetition every 
six or seven years. The cost of labour is materially increased 
in consequence. But Mr. Batho stated his belief that the 
benefit derived from the ashes repaid the whole cost. The whole 
of this peat land is capable of subsoil irrigation by the damming 
up of a stream which runs through and round the fields, and 
which, by means of flood-gates or sluices, can be arrested at dif- 
ferent points of its course. The land is drained at intervals of 
30 yards, the outfalls being into this stream. The drains become 
