Farm  Prize  Competition,  1909.  307 
The  rotation  course  of  roots,  wheat,  clover  (down  for 
two  years),  wheat  or  oats,  catch  crops  or  roots  is  generally 
followed.  Beans  and  barley  are  omitted,  not  being  profitably 
grown  here.  Farmyard  manure  is  used  for  the  root  crops — 
thirty  tons  per  acre  for  mangolds,  fifteen  tons  for  swedes  or 
turnips  (with  mineral  manures  and  nitrogenous  top  dressings 
in  addition).  All  the  arable  land  is  gas-limed,  when  fallow, 
some  time  before  cropping,  at  the  rate  of  three  tons  per  acre, 
there  being  no  natural  lime  in  the  soil.  Of  the  100  acres  of 
grass  land,  about  sixty  are  annually  dressed  with  a compost 
of  road  dirt,  town  sweepings,  and  some  yard  manure.  Lime 
or  gas  lime  goes  to  about  fifty  acres  in  early  winter.  Basic 
slag  and  superphosphate  are  used  when  considered  desirable. 
The  chief  feature  here  is  the  milking  herd — milk  being 
the  principal  source  of  income.  More  than  1,000Z.  worth  of 
milk  is  sold  annually  to  public  institutions,  for  which  the 
contracts  have  been  held  for  over  thirty  years.  The  manage- 
ment of  the  dairy  herd  is  very  good,  and  the  attention  to 
detail  excellent.  Mr.  Pendock  was  able  to  supply  detailed 
costs  and  returns  per  cow  for  both  the  summer  and  winter 
months.  Feeding  stuffs  cost  400Z.  per  annum,  and  labour 
about  350Z. 
The  general  management  on  this  farm  is  very  good — the 
cultivation  thorough  and  the  land  clean.  The  crops  were  good, 
particularly  wheat,  oats  and  mangold,  which  were  excellent. 
The  horses  are  a useful  lot,  and  the  milking  cows  first  rate. 
The  arable  land  had  every  appearance  of  being  in  fertile 
condition,  and  the  pastures  were  well  done.  Fences  and  ditches 
were  well  kept. 
Stretton  Court  Farm,  occupied  by  Mr.  Thomas  Andrews, 
consists  of  280  acres  arable  and  320  grass.  The  soil  is  light 
and  is  worked  on  the  four  course  system — roots,  barley,  clover, 
wheat.  Farmyard  manure  and  dressing  the  land  with  sheep 
form  the  basis  of  manuring,  artificial  manures  being  applied 
to  supplement  the  other  dressings. 
, About  130  Hereford  bullocks  are  bought  in  the  spring  for 
grazing  and  sold  out  in  the  autumn,  when  120  or  more  are 
bought  for  wintering  in  the  yards  and  sold  out  in  the  spring. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  pure  bred  Shropshire  ewes  are  kept, 
and  Mr.  Andrews  generally  succeeds  in  raising  about  360  lambs. 
If  the  root  crop  is  good,  150  or  200  more  lambs  are  bought  in 
to  help  feed  them  off.  About  half  of  the  roots  are  carted  off 
the  best  land  for  the  cattle  in  the  yards,  but  on  the  higher  land, 
which  does  not  receive  any  farmyard  manure,  all  the  root  crop 
is  eaten  on  the  land  by  sheep.  There  is  very  little  feeding 
land  at  Stretton  Court ; it  will  carry  a good  herd  of  growing 
stock,  however,  and  two-year-old  bullocks  do  fairly  well.  The 
