APRIL 155 



sometimes these ' clever ones ' get drunk and lose their situa- 

 tions. 



On the other hand, it is urged that race-meetings bring money 

 to a neighbourhood, and afford innocent enjoyment to many 

 country people who make a holiday of the occasion. Without 

 doubt there is much to be said for this view of the case, and I am 

 bound to add, from my experience as a magistrate, that 

 singularly little trouble has arisen at the local races. The worst 

 case which I can remember was that of some welchers who were 

 brought before us on the charge of having defrauded a number of 

 people of their money, one of whom escaped, while his companion, 

 a very smartly dressed gentleman, was convicted and sent to jail for 

 a month. Perhaps the best comment on the undecided state of 

 my mind as to these festivities is that I subscribe a modest sum 

 towards them. 



April 23. — Thursday, the 21st, was cold but bright. On the 

 farm we were horse-hoeing beans. This is an operation that to 

 the inexperienced looks terribly destructive, especially in the case 

 of winter beans, which by now are tall. However carefully the 

 horse may march down the rows, or with whatever skill the hoer 

 may manage his instrument, many of the stalks are cut by its 

 sharp knives and utterly destroyed. At first sight this seems a 

 wanton and a cruel waste, but in fact it is not so. To begin 

 with, those that are sacrificed most likely have sprung outside 

 the exact line, and are therefore encroaching upon the air and space 

 required by their neighbours. Also, even if a mistake is made 

 occasionally, and some are so unfortunate as to be annihilated 

 although occupying their right and lawful place, still, if the ' plant ' 

 be a fair one, a little hole here and there does it no harm, since 

 down it the sunlight percolates to the survivors. Any such losses 

 are amply compensated for by the destruction of thousands of 

 weeds and by the stirring of the soil about the roots of the crop. 

 Also we rolled beet-land and dragged out twitch-grass on that 

 portion of the Thwaite field, No. 28, which is to be drilled with 



