Farm-Prize Competition^ 1880. 
505 
Mr. Handley's Farm, Greenhead, Westmoreland, 
First Prize Farm. — Class I. 
Situation of Farm. — South of Kendal the Kent river finds its 
way through an undulating and agreeable country till it joins 
tlie sea at Morecambe Bay, forming one of the deep sandy in- 
dentations across which the Furness Railway has been carried 
by its spirited engineer. Through the heart of this verdant 
district, which has earned for itself the title of the " garden of 
Westmoreland," runs the main line of the North- Western Rail- 
way, leaving on its west side Whitbarrow Scar and the other fells 
which rise between this valley and the Lake of Windermere, and 
on the east the high limestone crags which intervene between it 
and the Lune valley at Kirkby Lonsdale. The Kendal and 
Grange Railway, which leaves the North- Western at Hincaster, 
also accommodates the district; and close to the junction of 
these two lines lies Greenhead, Mr. Handley's farm, in a country 
intersected by a network of Devonshire-like roads, and with no 
very prominent features in its immediate vicinity, save the high 
embankments of the railway and distant views of fells and 
*' scars." 
The Vale of Westvioreland famous for its Fertility. — The land 
hereabouts has a reputation for its fertility, and nowhere are the 
turnip crops — the chief boast of Westmoreland agriculture — 
more successfully cultivated ; the proximity of the sea producing 
a mildness, and the neighbourhood of the mountains a humidity 
of climate, to which this distinction is largely owing. 
A " Skortliorn " Farm. — Mr. Handley's speciality is his Short- 
horn herd, though the whole of his business is characterised by 
capital management. If we had not remembered his success at 
Kilburn last year with " Master Harbinger," we should have 
been left in no doubt as to his prowess as a breeder after entering 
his house ; for a more formidable array of cups and other trophies 
few tenant farmers could present. 
Acreage. — The size of the farm is only 201 acres, thus only 
just qualifying it for admission in Class L When I say that on 
this limited area a herd of nearly 100 head of cattle of the very 
finest description, and a flock of about 200 sheep, are maintained 
the year round, I have stated enough to qualify it for high 
praise ; but I must enter a little into the general management of 
the farm before I turn to what is undoubtedly the most interest- 
ing portion of its economy. 
The farm is held from year to year of G. E. Wilson, Esq., 
of Dallam Tower, and has been in Mr. Handley's occupation 
thirteen years. 
