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Report on the Farm-Prize Competition, 1870. 253 
First Prize Farm. 
I will now proceed to describe the farm occupied by Mrs. Mary 
Elizabeth Millingtou, to which the Judges awarded Mr. Mason's 
prize. It is known as the Ash Grove Farm, and is situated at 
Ardley, about five miles south-east of Bicester, and about 14 
miles north of Oxford. Its extent is 890 acres, of which there 
are about 820 acres of arable land and 70 acres of pasture. The 
farm is held under a 21 years' lease from the Duke of Marl- 
borough, six years of which are unexpired. The arable land is 
chiefly a light thin brown loam resting on the stone or corn 
brash ; and tlie depth of the surface soil, all of which is of poor 
quality, sometimes does not exceed 6 inches. The pasture land 
consists of a narrow strip of meadow nearly in the centre of the 
farm, on a peaty soil of the worst description. A glance at 
the Map which accompanies this Report will show the surface- 
geology of the district, it is therefore unnecessary to trouble our 
readers with a geological description. 
The high road from Oxford to Brackley runs through the 
farm, but does not divide it quite equally. The house and 
premises are situated near the road, and on the north-west side 
of it. The arable land is well laid out in good square fields, and 
is farmed strictly upon the 4-course rotation, although the only 
covenant in the lease as to cropping provides that the land shall 
be farmed under a 4-course shift during the last four years, 
leaving it entirely to the discretion of the tenant how to farm it 
during the first seventeen. 
Buildings. — The house and buildings are of stone and slate, 
very substantially built, and in good repair. The buildings, how- 
ever, are somewhat old-fashioned, and do not contain such good 
arrangements for the accommodation of cattle as they should do. 
The yards are insufficiently provided with shelter -sheds, and 
altogether behind the age ; but these defects are clearly not the 
fault of the tenant. 
Roots. — The 200 acres of wheat and barley stubble-land, 
intended for roots, are ploughed up as deeply as the thin stony 
land will allow early in the autumn, and steam-cultivated in 
the following spring. The land is afterwards worked with 
Coleman's cultivator, and the roots are all drilled on the flat 
24 inches apart. About 20 acres of mangold-wurzel are usually 
sown, and are manured with 5 cwts. of superphosphate, applied 
by the water-drill. 
The plants are horse-hoed three or four times as occasion may 
require, and hand-hoed, picked, and finished off for 7^. per acre. 
The roots are taken up when ripe towards the end of October, 
and stored in the usual way. 
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