315 
Farm Prize Competition, 1913 . 
pack-horse type, but still heavy enough to plough the land in 
winter. The tenant remarked that they could cut nine acres of 
grass in the day, and then cart hay in the evening without loss 
of condition. There was a two-year-old got by a thoroughbred 
out of one of these mares, likely to make a useful carriage 
horse ; and also a yearling got by a shire horse out of the same 
mare, likely to make an animal similar to the dam herself. 
The cattle are kept entirely for the production of milk, and all 
the cow stock on the farm speak of skilful breeding. A hei d 
of pedigree Shorthorns is gradually being built up, which only 
wants the addition of milk-records to make it quite hist-class. 
There are also a few Jerseys to keep up the quality of the milk, 
and three nice Dutch heifers, bought as a bargain from an 
amateur farmer in the district. The bull was an excellent ty pe 
of long-pedigree dairy Shorthorn, and a Jersey bull, kept 
mainly for the use of the local residential “ villa farmers,” bore 
witness to the quickness of the tenant to see and to supply a 
local demand. It was surprising to learn that the tenant’s farmer 
neighbours were willing to pay a full pedigree fee for the 
service of the Shorthorn bull, as this is not the usual experience ; 
and it is to be hoped that it indicates an increasing appreciation 
of the value of good blood. The heifers were a really beautiful 
lot, and the calves in the paddock were a wonderful testimony 
to the advantage to be got by allowing them to have milk from 
their mothers for the first month. These calves, at seven weeks, 
and getting practically no milk, had all the appearance of 
sucking calves. It is a question for the consideration of the 
farmer whether forty or fifty gallons sucked in this way is not 
worth more to the calf than a hundred gallons gulped out of a 
Pail No flock of sheep is kept, but a small bunch of Hampshire 
ewes are bought each year to lamb down early, and to be fed 
out with their lambs. This being so, it is not surprising that 
the Judges were not impressed with the sheep they saw. 
Coming to the pigs, Mr. McEwen-Smith keeps a Berkshire boar, 
workmanlike, but nothing more ; and once again are found 
sows of the Essex large-black breed. He had also some so- 
called cross-breds, which surely must be the old Gloucestershire 
blue-and-white breed, examples of which were seen at Mr. 
Jones’ farm at Badminton. Mr. McEwen-Smith gets all his 
pigs out as small porkers, and it might be remarked that nearer 
London the colour would prejudice them somewhat for this 
, trade, but he did not find this to be so in the Bristol market. 
Mr. McEwen-Smith is no novice in prize farm competitions, for 
during the past nine years he has won two firsts and a second 
in the West Gloucestershire Society’s contests. 
