FEBRUARY 105 



occasion being not more than fifteen years ago. From a flail to 

 a modern steam-thrasher is a long stride, and the time and 

 labour saved by the latter are almost incalculable. Yet I believe 

 that farming paid better in the days of flails and reaping hooks 

 than it does now in those of steamers and self-binders. 



In walking round the farm this afternoon I noticed that the 

 rooks are playing havoc on the three acres of mixed grain which 

 we drilled a few days ago for sheep food on No. 24. They are 

 congregated there literally by scores, and if you shout at them to 

 frighten them away, they satisfy themselves by retiring to some 

 trees near at hand and awaiting your departure to renew their 

 operations. The beans attract them most, and their method of 

 reducing these into possession is to walk down the lines of the 

 drill until (as I suppose) they smell a bean underneath. Then 

 they bore down with their strong beaks and extract it, leaving a 

 neat little hole to show that they have been there. Maize they love 

 even better than beans ; indeed, it is difficult to keep them off a 

 field sown with that crop. Hood promises to set up some mawkins 

 to fright them, but the mawkin nowadays is a poor creature com- 

 pared with what he used to be, and it is a wonder that any 

 experienced rook consents to be scared by him. Thirty years or 

 so ago he was really a work of art, with a hat, a coat, a stick, and 

 sometimes a painted face, ferocious enough to frighten a little boy 

 in the twilight, let alone a bird. Now a rag or two and a jumble- 

 sale cloth cap are considered sufficient, backed up generally by 

 the argument, which may prove more effective, of a dead rook tied 

 up by the leg to a stick. 



In the course of my walk I came across sheep's-parsley in 

 bloom and, in sheltered places, honeysuckle and the arum-like 

 plants which we call ' lords and ladies ' in full leaf. 



February 6. Yesterday we had heavy snowstorms with intervals 

 of sunshine, which left the ground quite deep in thawing snow. 

 The ox of which I have already spoken has turned sick again, so, 

 as he is a big brute, with a good deal of meat on his bones, Hood 



