Derby Prize-Farm Competition, 1881. 
491 
fences occupy very little ground, the weeds and turf having 
been cleared quite away, and the corn in one field growing very 
near to the crop in the next. The sheep appear very mild or 
such fences would not keep them in bounds. 
Accounts seem to have been always carefully kept, and the 
depression in agriculture has not come heavily here. Neither 
should it ; for if competitors for Royal honours cannot show 
good results, ordinary farmers are to be pitied. 
Sfenson Farm. — This farm has been in the hands of Mr. 
Hellaby a short time only. It is now on sale in consequence 
of the death of the owner, Mr. Thomas Watson, so it has never 
been brought into course and kept as the other has been. How- 
ever, there is an excellent dairy of 28 cows there, the milk of 
which is sent to London on the same terms as that from the 
home-farm, and the cows are kept in about the same manner ; 
also one bull, 14 dry and feeding cows, 4 young calves, and 52 
fat sheep. A first-rate piece of oats, by a lot of capital mangolds 
and swedes, we inspected, and the barley was a very heavy and 
full crop. The results of farming here are quite satisfactory, 
and if Mr. Hellaby continued to hold it and give the same 
attention to it as to his home-farm its appearance would soon 
improve. 
If the object of the Royal Agricultural Society in offering 
prizes for well-managed farms is to encourage skill and care 
among farmers, the Society has attained its purpose in this case 
as well as in that of the first-prize farm. Mr. Hellaby's con- 
tinual care and industry, his great skill and excellent judgment, 
have produced results of which agriculturists of any country 
may be proud. And it is only justice to Mr. Hellaby to state 
that one of us was very decidedly of opinion that he, rather than 
Mr. Bryer, was entitled to the First Prize. 
Mr. Arthur Stretton's Farm. 
Recommended for Third Prize, Class I. 
This farm (Wichnor Bridges, near Lichfield) lies on each 
side of the main road from Lichfield to Burton-on-Trent, six 
miles from Lichfield and six from Burton. The road is part of 
the old Roman Ikenield Street, and the house was built for a 
posting-house,' having the sign of "The Flitch of Bacon." On 
reference to a History and Gazetteer of Staffordshire, by William 
White, 1834, we find that Wm. Stretton then lived at "The 
Flitch of Bacon," and the following extract about Wichnor is 
interesting : — 
