BEDINGHAM, DITCHINGHAM &> THE FARMS 17 



sweep the herbage into their mouths with their tongues, and do 

 not nip it down close. At least, the result is too frequently the 

 same : a complaint that the pasture has ' gone off,' with a sugges- 

 tion that the seed provided at so great a cost was bad. The 

 truth is that the tenant has no personal interest in the success of 

 the experiment ; it is the landlord's money he is ' kicking down,' not 

 his own, and if that lot of seed fails, well, the landlord can find 

 more. Moreover, it is probable that in his heart he does not 

 believe in the laying down of heavy lands. It was not done in 

 his father's time, or in his own youth, and so it must be wrong. 

 Heavy lands were intended to grow corn. Therefore if the land- 

 lord has a fad on the point and wishes to make them grow grass 

 instead, let him indulge it at his own expense he at least is 

 more wise, and is not going to bother about the matter. 



The remainder of the land on the Moat Farm, excluding the 

 pieces that have been or are to be laid down, is a heavy soil of 

 fair quality, such as, with careful tillage, draining, and manuring, 

 in all ordinary seasons should produce good crops of whatever 

 is grown upon it. The particulars of the use to which each field 

 is to be put this year will be given in due course (see Map, p. 13), 

 also of the labour and horses employed upon the holding. 



THE HOME FARM 



I turn now to describe the land I farm here at Ditchingham. 

 Ditchingham is a parish of about eleven hundred inhabitants, 

 containing something over two thousand acres of land. In shape 

 it is large and straggling, but the most of the population live at 

 the Bungay end, for the village and the town meet at the bridge 

 over the Waveney ; indeed, were it not for the sundering river 

 it would be difficult to say where the one finishes and the other 

 begins. The village, in the course of ages, must have shifted 

 away from the church, which, in the beginning, was presumably 

 its central point ; at least, not a single cottage now stands near 

 to it. Here we have little difficulty in tracing the origin of the 



c 



