224 
Farm Prize Competition, 1908. 
The arable land was very well tilled and receiving great 
attention. The corn crops seen were quite good, and the 
swedes and mangolds looked very well indeed. There was 
evidence on all sides of all-round good commercial farming. 
Class II. — First Prize Farm. 
Occupied by Mr. George Harrison , Gainford Hall, Gainford. 
This farm is beautifully situated in the pleasant old village 
of Gainford, which lies eight miles west from Darlington, and 
eight miles east from Barnard Castle. Gainford Hall, now 
the farm-house, is at the west end of the village and is the 
property of Lord Barnard. It is a picturesque gabled building 
of the Jacobean period. 
The land farmed by Mr. Harrison is made up of two hold- 
ings, one being known as Gainford Hall Farm, the other as 
Park Farm. Gainford Hall Farm, consisting of 76 acres of 
arable and 52 acres of grass land, is held on a yearly tenancy 
under Lord Barnard and has been occupied by Mr. Harrison 
for twelve years. The Park Farm consists of 98 acres of grass 
land, and has been rented from Henry Kitchin, Esq., of Great 
Ayton, since 1903. The soil at Gainford is a gravelly loam, 
subsoil gravel. The cropping of the arable land in 1908 was : 
Wheat, 4 acres ; barley, 16 acres ; oats, 16 acres ; tares, &c., 
4 acres ; swedes, 10 acres ; mangolds, 3 acres ; potatoes, 1 acre ; 
yellow turnips, 1 acre ; one-year seeds, 8 acres ; two and three- 
year seeds, 13 acres. The potatoes are grown for the house 
and men, and the yellow turnips for winter feed for the ewes. 
Clover must not be taken too frequently on this land. There- 
fore, instead of each year undersowing with seeds the whole of 
the barley area, only one half is so treated. The barley on the 
other half of the area is followed by oats, the land receiving 
fifteen loads per acre of well-rotted summer-made farm-yard 
manure. Mr. Harrison is not bound down to any prescribed 
form of rotation, and his system of cropping, which is as follows, 
introduces clover once only in eight years : — 
Fallows and Roots, 1901. 
Barley, 1902. 
Seeds — 1903 — Oats. 
Oats — 1904 — Roots. 
Wheat and Tares — 1905 — Barley. 
Roots — 1906 — Seeds. 
Barley — 1907 — Oats. 
Oats — 1908 — Wheat and Tares. 
