400 A FARMER'S YEAR 



perfectly unrivalled, indeed I have seen one of them cause a strong 

 man to perform cart-wheels like a street arab. Also the}' were 

 subject to unreasonable panics, in the course of which they 

 charged fences and broke their expensive necks. Once, under 

 pressure of necessity, we performed tracheotomy on an ostrich— 

 a terrible and exhausting operation. The creature had swallowed 

 a bone about eight inches long, which became fixed across his 

 gullet. As it would move neither up nor down, with the help of 

 four picked Kaffirs and a razor we held him and hewed out the 

 obstruction. Strange to say, he recovered from this dehcate 

 surgical feat, but by an evil fate a few months later he swallowed 

 another bone, which stuck in the same place. This we were 

 unable to remove, and that ostrich died. 



One of the most beautiful sights which I ever saw is that of a 

 flock of these birds in their wild state floating away across the vast 

 plains till their snowy plumes were lost in the dim blue of the 

 sky-line. This and the spectacle of the Transvaal veld black with 

 thousands upon thousands of trekking game are things that I am 

 glad to have beheld, especially as the latter of them will never be 

 seen again. And so farewell to ostriches, which to me furnish no 

 happy memories. 



On the farm we are still getting off beet, in much colder 

 weather, for the wind has turned to the east. 



November 19. — The beet on Baker's, No. 44, have proved a 

 better crop than might have been expected, when the poor state 

 of the land and the rather thin plant are taken into consideration.' 

 From the seven acres of them we have carted about one hundred 

 and forty loads, which must represent not far short of twenty tons 

 to the acre, or, to be on the safe side, let us say eighteen tons — a 

 not unsatisfactory return. 



We have begun digging the carrots— for the soil is too tight 

 to allow of their being pulled — which have grown upon the 

 Thwaite field. There are an acre and three quarters of them, 

 with some parsnips mixed in, and I reckon the weight at about 



