234 
Farm Prize Competition , 1908. 
ings. — These are maintained by the landlord, and 
are good and suitable for the farm. All are kept in excellent 
order, and as clean and tidy as could be desired. The 
stackyard was exceedingly neatly kept, the building of the 
stacks and thatching being wonderfully well done, the Judges 
heartily commending the foreman who was responsible. The 
fences, gates, and occupation roads are maintained by the 
tenant, and were in excellent order. 
Costs. — Rent, 49s. per acre ; rates, 8s. 6 d. ; labour, 37s. 6d. ; 
purchased foods and manures, 25s. per acre. The labour on 
this farm consists of a steward, who does the stacking, 
thatching, hedging, &c., 28s. per week with house, 60 stones 
of potatoes, and 20s. for coals ; four men at 23s. each per week 
with house ; one milkboy at 18s. per week. 
The arable land is all deep-soiled land, which is farmed 
right up to the hilt, splendidly tilled, and growing crops which 
looked well and clean. The first year’s mowing clover, 
dressed with 1 cwt. nitrate soda per acre, was especially good. 
The root crops were good and clean. This farm made a very 
good second in the best of company. The Judges remarked 
that everything seen was of the best, even down to the 
retriever pups. 
Class III. — First' Prize Farm. 
Occupied bp Mr. Malcolm Nicol , Elstob House , Silksivorth 
Lane , Sunderland. 
This farm is situated about two miles south by west of 
Sunderland and midway between this town and Silksworth, 
and consists of 48 acres arable and 45 acres grass land. It is 
held on a yearly tenancy under the Executors of the late Mr. 
John M. Ogden, and has been in Mr. Nicol’s hands for the last 
fifteen years. The land is undulating, the soil ou the high 
lands being of a strong character, and in the valleys light and 
loamy, with limestone subsoil and outcrops of the magnesian 
limestone. 
The cropping in 1908 was : — Oats, 16 acres ; swedes, 
12 acres ; potatoes, 10 acres ; wheat, 5 acres ; tares, 2 acres ; 
rye, 2 acres ; turnips, 1 acre. 
The land is farmed under an open agreement as to cropping, 
and the general rotation is as follows : — Roots, oats, clover, 
potatoes, wheat. For turnips the land is twice ploughed, once 
before Christmas. After working it is set up in drills, into 
which farm-yard manure is carted at the rate of thirty-five 
loads per acre, and no other manure is given for this crop. The 
swede seed is sown on the drills at 3 to 4 lb. per acre, and no top 
dressings given. The double operation of singling and second 
