288 
Farm  Prize  Competition,  1909. 
The  rest  of  the  land  mown  is  manured  with  compost  and 
by  sheep  eating  roots  with  cake  and  corn  during  the  spring, 
also  occasionally  with  home-ground  bone  dust. 
The  pasture  land  looked  very  nice  indeed,  having  an 
excellent  “ face  ” on  it.  The  pastures  in  years  gone  by  have 
been  liberally  treated  with  ground  bones,  thus  laying  a 
foundation  for  good  grass,  which  is  now  well  grazed  by  stock 
receiving  both  cake  and  corn  and  requires  no  further  treat- 
ment to  keep  it  in  good  condition. 
The  orchards  were  very  old,  and  the  fruit  probably  only  fit 
for  cider,  but  there  is  a very  promising  young  standard  orchard 
of  4 acres  planted  with  the  best  kinds  of  fruit  trees. 
The  Horses  consisted  of  eleven  working  horses,  three  mares 
with  foal,  five  colts  rising  four  years  old,  two  colts  rising  three 
years  old,  five  colts  rising  two  years  old,  six  colts  rising  one 
year  old,  two  riding  horses,  and  two  ponies.  Some  of  the 
horses  are  bought  and  some  are  bred.  The  explanation  of 
the  large  number  is  that  sales  are  constantly  taking  place  as 
soon  as  the  horses  are  fit  for  town  work,  that  the  brood  mares 
are  not  available  for  farm  work  for  a considerable  portion  of 
their  time,  and  that  the  young  horses  are  not  allowed  to  do  too 
much  work.  The  horses  are  of  the  Shire  type,  good  and  useful 
for  their  work,  of  good  stamp,  have  plenty  of  bone  and  body 
with  good  feet  and  hair,  but  were  rather  poor  in  condition  at  the 
time  of  our  first  visit  from  continuous  hard  work.  The  horses 
work  nine  hours  per  day  during  the  summer  and  eight  during 
the  winter,  with  a break  at  mid-day.  During  the  summer  the 
daily  allowance  for  each  horse  is  6 lb.  of  a mixture  of  oats, 
beans,  and  maize,  and  they  lie  out  at  grass  by  night.  In  the 
winter  months  the  “ corn  ” is  increased  to  10  lb.  per  head, 
with  long  clover  hay  at  night. 
The  Cattle  are  sixty-five  store  bullocks,  twenty-three 
fattening  heifers,  eighteen  store  heifers  for  autumn  calving, 
seven  milking  cows,  and  one  bull.  These  are  all  bought  in. 
They  are  principally  Herefords,  but  Shorthorns  are  sometimes 
bought ; for  feeding  purposes  mostly  heifers,  but  some  bullocks 
for  stores  during  winter.  These  are  usually  sold  in  the 
spring  for  grazing  in  the  Midland  counties.  Mr.  Hawkins 
generally  has  some  Shorthorn  cattle  to  calve  about  early 
autumn  to  sell  out  for  milkers.  The  ration  for  fattening  cattle 
during  the  winter  consists  of  cut  straw  and  hay  with  roots, 
and  from  6 to  8 lb.  of  cake  and  corn  mixed,  with  long  hay  at 
nights.  Stores  get  cut  straw  and  hay  with  a few  roots,  the 
bullocks  and  best  cattle  fur  feeding  having  from  2 to  4 lb.  cake 
per  day.  During  summer  the  feeding  cattle  have  from  4 to 
6 lb.  corn  and  cake  per  day  out  on  the  grass.  The  stores 
during  summer  have  the  grass  only.  The  number  of  cattle  on 
