JUNE 213 



violent thunder-shower for my pains. The young red-polls — ihey 

 are eleven — are running in the new pastures, Nos. 15 and 16, 

 during the day, and in the wood at night. As at Ditchingham, 

 the barleys show yellow, though No. 5, which was sown first, and 

 has received a dressing of artificial manure, looks much the best ; 

 while the wheats, that in most seasons love this heavy land, keep 

 their colour, and are growing tall and strong. If we get little 

 else, at least this year there should be plenty of straw, which now- 

 adays is often almost as valuable as the grain. The beans seem 

 a splendid crop, as they have done from the first, and are in 

 flower. Two of the little beasts that are fattening in the hovel — I 

 do not think that they number much more than twenty months — 

 have been sold for 14/. apiece, while their elder brother. Royal 

 Duke, the ox that I kept to show, has much improved in appear- 

 ance. This I attribute to his having been removed from the 

 barn — where he lived alone, pining for lack of companionship — 

 and placed in a shed with another animal. Since the change he 

 has eaten much better, and his quarters, which were always a 

 little slack, are beginning to fill out, although at present they 

 cannot compare with his fore part, which is really magnificent. 



June 4. — The night before last there was another frost, of the 

 kind that is known here as ' water ' frost, the ground being white 

 with it early in the morning. Of such is the summer in England. 



Yesterday we were ploughing in the manure for the swedes on 

 the top of No. 24, the Bungay-fork field, and hoeing in the All 

 Hallows field. No. 29, and on Baker's. 



The trees have all been gilled from the Bath Hills into 

 the stackyard, where Hindle, the captain of the steam engine, 

 and his two mates are engaged in getting them ready for the 

 steam saw by sawing off the butts, cutting the timber into 

 suitable lengths, and chopping away excrescences upon one side 

 of them, so that they may ' ride ' easily upon the iron table. As 

 the turn of each tree comes, Hindle makes up his mind into what 

 kind of stuff it will cut to the best advantage. This requires a 



