551 
The Farm Prize ComjJetiiion of 1892. 
as in many instances the autumn wheat had not been planted 
and some of the stubbles awaited ploughing. 
The second visit was paid in the first week of June, when, 
thanks to the pulverising efiects of the frost and the dry spring, 
there was a good plant of spring-sown wheat, which was of 
a good colour and promised to make a fine crop. On the 
fallows which had been sown with turnips there was generally a 
good plant, and where beans had been planted the straw, though 
short, was well covered with bloom, and, with a fair season, 
looked like giving an average yield. 
Owing to the enforced lateness of the sowing and their con- 
sequent inability to cope with the severe weather, the winter 
beans, which were a good plant on our first visit, had succumbed, 
and their place had been supplied with maple peas. The early 
peas, too, had suffered in the same manner, and those that escaped 
the frost had been eaten by the pea-weevil, which necessitated 
a second planting with a later variety. 
From the great facilities for transit offered by the numerous 
canals in this county, many of which run through or by the 
sides of the farms, the refuse manure of Birmingham, which is 
to be had in almost any quantity at the rate of 6d. per ton at 
the canal side, can be very easily utilised as a dressing for pota- 
toes, turnips, and other crops. From 40 to 60 tons per acre 
are often used. In many instances, too, owing to the proximity 
of the farms to other large towns, a good supply of stable 
manure is to be had. With the opportunities thus available, the 
application of ammoniacal and phosphatic manures is rendered 
almost unnecessary, except in the case of the mangel and turnip 
crops, and on these a small dressing of from 2 to 4 cwt. per acre 
of special turnip and mangel manure is employed in addition 
to the refuse and dung. The Warwickshire farmers have, how- 
ever, great faith in the manurial properties of soot, 5 to 8 cwt. per 
acre being employed as a top dressing for wheat, oats, and the like. 
The drought of April and May had told very severely on a 
great many of the fields on the gravelly soil, and in some 
instances even on the clays, notably on the oats and clover. 
Some of the latter were completely scorched up, promising but 
a very light crop for cutting. The permanent grasses, many of 
which, on account of the backward spring and shortness of keep, 
had had to be fed till the first week in May, w'ere so thin as 
hardly to afford cover for a mouse, and gave prospects of the 
lighte.st crop that had been grown for year’s. 
Very large crops of mangel were noticed on most of the 
farms. In the case of swedes it was the exception to see a good 
yield. This may be accounted for by the peculiarity of the 
