310 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1872. 
December, at a cost of 6^. per acre, the swede crop is partlj 
pitted in the field, and partly carted to the buildings, for store 
cattle and fattening beasts. A few, when they can be spared, 
are eaten whole, in the spring, by the ewe-stock. 
Besides the common turnips sown in June and July, on the 
flat, after catch crops, and manured with 6 cwts. per acre of 
superphosphate, a small plot of White Tankards is put in early 
(with dung and artificials, because mostly pulled off), for the use 
of the lambs in August and September. Instead of applying the 
entire dressing of artificial manures at the time of sowing his 
swedes and turnips, Mr. Thomas very often reserves about one- 
half, and sows it, by drill, after the plants have been singled. 
A slight scuffling saves the manure from waste, and, in moist 
weather especially, this plan is much approved. 
The root-shift, as it becomes cleared, is at once prepared for 
wheat, barley, or oats, as the case may be, and the whole is 
seeded down. Spring wheat and Chevalier barley are drilled 
at the rate of 3 bushels per acre ; the former in February, and 
the latter in March and April. A full crop of barley reaches 
50 bushels. Oats are but sparingly grown, as they never attain 
a great bulk. Though occasionally taken after roots they more 
commonly follow some catch-crop, which, from having been 
seeded immediately the wheat crop came off", has been consumed 
by the middle of April. 
Grass seeds, of which the following is the mixture generally 
adopted, are sown by seed-barrow (or broadcast drill), lightly 
harrowed, and rolled, about the second week in April : — 
4 lbs. Red Clover, 
4 lbs. Yellow Clover, 
2 lbs. White Clover, 
2 lbs. Alsike Clover, 
\ bushel Italian Rye-grass. 
About one-third of the seed-break is mown for hay, dried and 
stacked in the usual way. 
We have mentioned at the outset a piece of sainfoin on 
Mr. Thomas's farm. This, a 9-acre field, is one of the best 
crops of the kind we ever saw, and looked like yielding 2i tons 
per acre of highly nutritious hay. When viewed on the 17th of 
June it was ready for cutting, and will form an excellent winter 
food for the sheep, this being the use to which it is almost 
entirely put. This sainfoin was sown along with a wheat-crop, 
and, though this is the fourth mowing, it does not appear to 
diminish in luxuriance or quality. The land, however, is richly 
manured by folding sheep upon the aftermatli, and giving them 
liberally corn and cake. j 
Mr. Thomas finds six useful horses, yoked in pairs, abreast 
