272 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition, 1870. 
There are 27 cart horses, a large and good sort ; they are 
always worked abreast, and are fed on crushed corn and chaff, 
and no long hay. In summer they have green food in the 
yards. 
The fences at Kirtlington are good, and on the whole well 
managed. Many of the old fences have been taken down, and 
those which remain divide the farms into large enclosures. 
The labourers are well cared for at Kirtlington, living in new 
and excellent cottages, which are placed in different situations 
on the farm. Captain Dashwood is very particular as to the 
management of the men, and his intelligent bailiff, Mr. Hibgin, 
takes great care that there is little or no working in gangs, and 
indeed two men rarely work together. There is a great deal of 
piece-work, and each man takes his own part, which is all 
measured up and paid for separately. In hoeing turnips, and 
other work of the sort, the advantage of this plan is obvious. If 
men work in gangs the good labourer has no inducement to 
perform his work well, as he is mixed up with the careless 
man and the sloven. No beer is ever given, even in harvest- 
time ; but every thing is paid for in money. When Captain 
Dashwood first commenced this system it was much disliked, 
but now that the men are used to it they prefer having more 
money to take home to their wives and families. 
The foregoing description of the course of crop])ing adopted 
at Kirtlington shows a very different system of farming from that 
pursued on the two Prize Farms, and I trust that Captain 
Dashwood will pardon me for making a comparison which 
may be instructive. 
At Ash Grove and at Upper Winchendon one-half only of the 
arable land is annually under white grain crops. The manure 
is all applied under ground, and much reliance is placed upon 
the fertilizing power of cake- and corn-eating sheep; but at 
Kirtlington four-sixths of the arable land is given up to cereal 
crops, nitrate of soda being the great stimulant employed to 
force these extra crops from a somewhat exhausted soil. In 
very favourable seasons the system is said to answer, but tlus 
year it is certainly a failure. When we made our first inspec- 
tion in May, we were much struck with the general appearance 
of the farm, its large square fields, its clean cultivation, its 
straight drilling, and the business-like system of management 
which pervaded the whole concern. The young crops then 
looked green and flourishing, and we were not prepared to see so 
many acres of very light and inferior corn in the month of July. 
The whole blame is laid upon the season, but we think that 
want of condition is the real reason why light land at Kirtlington 
has suffered so much more by drought than similar light land 
at Ardley. The fact is that the system of growing corn by 
