THE WEXCOMBE FARM.
Mr. Hosier bought a derelict property of 1,000 acres in 1922. What he paid for it I do not know, but land thereabouts has sold recently for as little as 15 an acre freehold, with buildings thrown in ; and land exactly similar to his is let at "the ridiculous sum," as Mr. Tigg used to say, of Is. 6d. an acre. On this half-abandoned land he now keeps 320 cows, divided into five herds, and 150 heifers and young stock. The core of his secret is the use of portable sheds and milking machines, by help of which he is enabled to keep his cows out of doors all the year, milk them in clean and healthy conditions, and Cut down expenses to a degree which still meets with a good deal of incredulity. Nor is this all. The manure is taken to the places where it is most wanted without cartage, and the System permanently improves the ground at the minimum of cost and trouble. The land has in fact trebled in value within four years. Since he issued his account, specialists of all sorts have visited the farm, including an inspector from the Country Gentleman's Association ; and the essential correctness of the figures is no longer in question. Many of us had been a little shy of accepting them at the first blush. They seemed altogether too good to be true.
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