288 A FARMER'S YEAR 



moment we have more than a truss or so of the crop of 1897 left 

 upon the place. 



Every farmer must be thankful that this, the first harvest of 

 the year, has been secured in plenty, and, on the whole, in such 

 good order. Here, at the beginning of haysel, we had one field 

 of layer, No. 45, badly damaged by the wet, and more than 

 half of the stuff on Baker's Marsh is still out, but all the 

 rest is safe and snug in the ricks — and to the farmer's eye 

 hay always looks best upon a stack. I think that here at Ditching- 

 ham, so nearly as I can estimate, we must have carried about a 

 hundred tons. 



On my way back from Eedingham I went to look at some 

 yearling cattle belonging to a tradesman in Bungay, who has taken 

 them over for a debt, and wishes to dispose of them at the price 

 they were valued at to him, namely, 6/. \os. each. About six of 

 these I found to be fair-looking animals, not polled, but ' slug- 

 horned,' that is, with horns about the size and shape of a large 

 sausage. On the whole they are a coarse-bred lot, and I think 

 that 6/. each would be plenty to pay for them ; indeed, I do not 

 know that they will suit us at all. Our difiticulty here is to buy 

 well-bred things. It would seem that anything with four legs and 

 a tail is good enough for a Norfolk farmer to breed from. He 

 will not understand that good blood means good beef, and, what 

 is more, quickly grown beef. 



The morning of the 28th was sunless, but we managed to draw 

 up two loads of hay from Baker's Marsh. Just as the men were 

 returning there with the carts after dinner, a slight shower came 

 on, which stopped them, but they were able to get some of the 

 made hay into cock. About half-past five it came on to rain in 

 good earnest — a welcome sight indeed to farmers who have been 

 watching the earth grow harder day by day, while the mangold 

 remained almost at a standstill and the young swedes languished 

 and turned blue and lousy. When the rain began to be heavy I 

 walked round the farm, visiting some of the root-fields. I know 

 of no more pleasant experience after a long period of drought 



