324 ' Farm Prize Competition , 1913. 
high standard of practical skill to which the competitors have 
attained in the breeding and management of their stock, and in 
the management of their land. The second is that the faculty 
for the organisation of the farm as an industry has not been 
developed to the same degree, and there is a certain lack of 
appreciation of the need for further attention to this aspect of 
the farmer’s vocation. For example, it was no uncommon 
experience to be shown a grand bull, on the subject of whose 
pedigree the farmer would be entirely ignorant. Again, the 
vaguest notions frequently prevailed as to the nature and 
quantity of the various feeding rations, whilst, to take another 
illustration of what must surely be the wrong attitude of mind, 
a winner in one of the larger classes when asked by the Judges 
if he had filled up his returns for the Board of Agriculture 
replied with a laugh that he always threw the form straight 
into the waste-paper basket directly it arrived ! Such things as 
these, together with the want of knowledge of milk yields, the 
absence of any system of accountancy, and so forth, are unfor- 
tunately far too general not only in the three counties to which 
this report refers, but also in many other farming districts, and 
surely before long much greater attention must be paid to them. 
Fortunately there are already signs of an awakening interest, 
and it is encouraging to note that in Somerset the milk-record- 
ing scheme which is being developed in connection with the 
Board of Agriculture’s livestock improvement proposals has 
already become very popular, and herds representing some 
2,000 cows are coming into the scheme. This is evidence of 
the spirit of enquiry which is one of the greatest assets of the 
farmer. 
The writer desires to acknowledge the very great assistance 
afforded to him in the compilation of this report by the Judges, 
Mr. W. Nunnerley, of Kenwick, Ellesmere, Salop, and Mr. T. 
L. Walker, of Ankerdene, Knightwick, Worcester, and also by 
his friend, Mr. K. J. J. Mackenzie, of the School of Agriculture, 
University of Cambridge. 
C. S. ORWIN. 
Institute for Research in Agricultural Economics, 
University of Oxford. 
