JANUARY 65 



any except the largest breeders, who make it a part of their routine 

 in order to advertise their herds and thus to obtain large prices 

 for their young bulls and heifers. Success is very much a matter 

 of outlay, for not only, as a rule, must the bulls and dams be 

 costly animals, but the expense of preparing their progeny for the 

 ring is considerable. Thus, they must be kept on a cow much 

 longer than is usual, and afterwards receive more ample food and 

 attention. Also, the sending of them and their attendants 

 backwards and forwards to shows always means money. It is not 

 wonderful, therefore, that many owners of good cattle do not think 

 that the game will pay for the candle. 



Besides these steers there are ten young things running in 

 the big meadow, whence they come up at night and are fed with 

 a mixture of hay, chaff, and swedes. Also there are the farm- 

 horses (we are managing with two at Bedingham now, one of 

 them in foal), colts and ponies, so it will be seen that for the size 

 of the place there is a good proportion of stock. 



After inspecting the animals I walked down to the six-acre, 

 No. 18 on plan, which is being bush drained, a process that is 

 perhaps worth describing for the benefit of the uninitiated. 



Bush-draining is a system used upon very heavy clay lands 

 where it would be of doubtful advantage, if not mere waste, to go 

 to the expense of pipes. It is done thus. First the lines of the 

 drains are drawn with a plough. This sounds simple enough, 

 and perhaps it is simple to the experts who do it, but to the 

 uninstructed the difficulties, especially on a perfectly flat piece of 

 land, seem enormous. Of course the land is not perfectly flat ; 

 if it were, while hesitating to express a positive opinion, I presume 

 that it would not be possible to drain without the help of a pump. 

 Still, to take the instance of this field at Bedingham, it is so flat 

 that the eye, or rather my eye, can detect no variation of level. In 

 fact, however, there is a slight rise in the centre of the field, forming 

 its watershed, so that the drains must run and discharge in two 

 directions, starting from the watershed ; or, to put it more clearly, 

 although the drain trenches are cut straight from one side of the 



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