304 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1872. 
and delivery of corn two-horse carts are employed. Howard's 
ploughs do their work in their usual good style. The Cambridge 
roller and Crosskill's clod-crusher are much prized for consoli- 
dating the wheat-land during spring, and limiting the damage 
done by wire-worm. Mr. Owen has not changed a farm-servant 
for six years; with a cottage and garden he gives 145. per week; 
like other employers, his wages have since Christmas advanced 
about \s. a week ; drink is only supplied during hay time and 
harvest. Hoeing, mowing, reaping, and other such work, are 
done by the piece, and during harvest the men earn on an 
average from 20s. to 25s. per week. 
3Ik. Michael Spencer's Farm. 
" West Aberthaw," situated in the parish of St. A than, on the 
coast of Glamorganshire, about 5^ miles south of the town of 
Cowbridge, deserves notice mainly on account of its very clean 
and neat cultivation. In this respect, indeed, we doubt whether 
we saw any farm surpassing Mr. Spencer's. 
Resting on the Lower Lias Shale and Limestone, the soil is a 
kind of light clay, and tolerably productive. Some 20 acres of 
the farm have been stone-drained, and the remainder is by nature 
dry enough for the generality of crops. The total quantity of 
land in hand is, in round numbers, 243 acres, of w hich 143 acres 
are arable, 40 old grass and meadow, and 60 acres rough and 
somewhat inferior cattle ground, which last was added to the 
farm only two years ago. 
Mr. Spencer has never asked for a lease, but holds the farm bj 
a written agreement, one clause in which prevents the taking 
two white crops in succession; a second debars the selling off 
any hay, straw, or roots ; and a third, peculiar, but full of 
meaning, precludes the use of lime, unmixed tcith soil or some 
other matter, to grass land. Born where he now resides, Mr. 
Spencer has occupied the farm eleven years on his own account, 
and previous to that time he acted for five years as manager to 
his father. 
The four-course system of cropping, more fully described in 
our account of the second-prize farm, is also strictly adhered to 
at West Aberthaw. At our June visit we found the farm under 
the following crops : — Lea wheat, 28 acres ; spring wheat, with 
grass seeds, after roots, 17 acres ; barley, with grass seeds, after 
roots, 23 acres ; seeds, partly mown for hav, 36 acres ; mangold- 
wurzel, swedes, white and yellow turnips, 36 acres. j 
The preparation of the land for root-crops begins with a light 
pa'ing, as soon as possible after harvest, with Coleman's cultivator. 
