Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1872. 311 
equal to the work of his farm. They are stabled all the year, 
and are kept on clover-hay, chopped straw, oats, pulped roots, 
I Sec, in winter ; and on trifolium, vetches, and other green food, 
in summer. No horses being bred, young, improving colts are 
1 picked up, as opportunity offers, to supply the place of horses 
[ disposed of before they fall off in value. 
No cattle are bred on this farm, the plan of buying a suffi- 
[ cient number of steers in the autumn, generally Herefords, two to 
, three years old, being found more convenient, if not more profit- 
I able, than breeding. These beasts are placed in open yards, 
i and fattened on pulped roots and chaff (given fresh), and 5 to 
6 lbs. of cake, mixed, occasionally, with crushed corn. Last 
year's lot cost 15/. a head in, and went off in May and June 
at 28/. to 35/., the markets, however, having meanwhile turned 
in favour of the seller. 
Sheep are both numerous and well-cared for on the " Rock 
Farm," the cake and corn-troughs being never out of use. And, 
; while the greater number thus kept show a fair return for the 
liberal feeding, it is only in this way that the manurial condition 
of the thin soils can be maintained. About 100 good Shropshire 
and Oxford Down ewes, bought annually at Wilton Fair, are 
put to well-bred Cotswold rams, purchased from Mr. Thomas's 
father. During winter these ewes run on the grass fields, 
meadows, and occasionally whole turnips, during the day, and 
are folded at night in a large, dry, open yard, troughed all round^ 
and receive a feed of malt-dust (8d. per bushel) and chopped 
straw or hay, night and morning. This mixture struck us as 
being a very agreeable and healthy kind of food, and we were 
not surprised to find that the animals ate it with much zest. 
The crop of lambs from 100 ewes is rarely below 150, and of 
these a few of the oldest and best are occasionally sent to the 
butcher. The remainder are shorn and weaned in June, and 
fed on vetches, or on the seeds and pastures, with ^ lb. of cake a 
day, until September. Having been first taught to eat common 
turnips whole, spread on the pastures, they are next penned on 
them, and have the roots cut ; sainfoin, or other hay, and chaff, 
being added to the allowance of cake. In December the swedes 
take the place of the common turnips, and thus, the supply of 
artificial food going on the while, the whole of the year-olds are 
generally got off, in the wool, before March expires. Last year's 
lot made 68s. a head. A flying-stock " of sheep being kept on 
this farm, the ewes purchased annually are sold off fat the follow- 
ing autumn or winter, at great weights. 
Pigs do not demand more than a passing remark. Two Berkshire 
sows are usually kept, and their offspring run on the stubbles and 
m the cattle-yards until their turn comes to be fed off as porkers. 
