44 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



practice around, which they are very apt to do if you 

 attempt any violent change. You may introduce 

 what machineiy and breeds you please, but it is 

 hard to keep your human helps up to the mark if 

 they feel that they are working out of step with the 

 men at other farms. Obviously, it not only makes 

 them an exception to the neighbourhood, but it also 

 puts their enjoyment out of joint. 



Let each man have his own team and keep to it ; 

 they will grow mutually attached, and work better 

 so. Men get disheartened if you keep shifting the 

 animals that are their pride to and fro. In some 

 districts there is one man to prepare the food and 

 take the teams on their return from ploughing, the 

 ploughman doing nothing in the stable. In other 

 places, as with us, every man looks after the cleaning 

 and feeding of his own, which I think answers best, 

 establishing a certain amount of affectionate confi- 

 dence between allies that are to spend so many long 

 hours on the field together. A vagabond will pull 

 your team's manes and tails until he has accumulated 

 a few pounds of hair to exchange for tobacco ; this 

 practice you must nip in the bud as soon as your 

 eye informs you. A fellow of this kind you had 

 better dismiss at once, as the provender may go 

 next. One sly fellow I remember, who got a white- 

 washed cork inserted cleverly just out of sight along 

 the inside of a beam in the floor of the granary (for 

 it should not be ceiled, else it gives good harbour for 

 mice) through which he used to draw a feed or two 

 extra now and then, but which I am bound to say I 

 believe he gave religiously to his team. It was, 



