Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1872. 307 
live-weight, according to age and fatness. Mr. Spencer contem- 
plates trying the effect of a cross between a few Oxford Down 
ewes and a Cotswold ram, believing that by so doing he will, 
without sacrificing size and quality, produce a heavier animal, 
and one that will Avinter better. 
More attention is paid to pigs on this farm than on some others 
that we visited. Berkshires are found to answer best ; and of 
these, partly for home use, but mostly for sale, 20 to 30 are bred 
annually. 
• jN o cottages are attached to Mr. Spencer's farm, but labourers' 
dwellings are obtainable in the adjacent village. A month's food 
in the corn-harvest, and 15s. per week all the year round, is the 
rate of wages given to good ploughmen and waggoners, ordinary 
labourers earning about 12>s. Two young men, boarded and 
lodged in the house, are paid, respectively, 20/. and 15/. per 
annum. Extra hands are employed in the busy seasons, and a 
large amount of farm-work is done by contract ; the total yearly 
sum paid for labour, not reckoning food and drink, being 
about 300/. 
Of artificial feeding stuffs, Mr. Spencer purchases most exten- 
sively of cotton-cake, preferring it to linseed-cake, especially 
where succulent food accompanies it. Of the two kinds he 
usually gets through 8 to 10 tons annually, while artificial 
manures commonly cost 70/. to 80/. 
Looking down upon the Bristol Channel, and, on a clear day, 
commanding a view of Somerset and Devon, the dwelling-house 
at West Aberthaw is agreeably and conveniently placed. The 
farm-buildings are chieflv of stone and slate ; a good feeding 
byre, constructed more after the best English and Scotch fashion, 
having been recently added. The whole of the steading is kept 
in repair by the landlord, who also supplies good field-gates. 
The hedges, improved by timely dressings (costing Id. per yard), 
are kept low and well-trimmed. 
In ending our report of this farm we may add that the old 
grass and meadow is, equally with the ploughed land, remark- 
ably clean and neatly kept. Occasional doses of dung and rich 
earth maintain its fertility, and hence, as we saw, young bullocks 
can be fattened in the pastures without the aid of corn or cake. 
Altogether, Mr. Spencer's farming has a great deal to recommend 
it, and might well have received at our hands a more lengthened 
description than our space permits. 
Mr. Eees Thomas's Farm. 
I Adjacent to the farm last described, and b3longing, in part, 
to the same proprietor, is the " Rock Farm," entered upon by 
X 2 
