126 A FARMER'S YEAR 



in our parts will not stand continuous wet and cold , it turns 

 yellow, and the sample is injured for malting purposes. 



The sheep have done fairly well ; the forty-nine ewes, one of 

 which, if not ghast that is, barren has not yet lambed, having 

 produced sixty-one lambs without accident to themselves or their 

 offspring. We reckon one and a half a very good fall of lambs, but 

 one and a quarter, which is about our proportion, is by no means 

 to be despised. Of course it means that there are not quite so 

 many doubles as there might be ; but where the farmer looks to 

 sell his lambs fat to the butcher within a month or two of Easter, 

 doubles have their disadvantages, as then it must be a strong ewe 

 that can cause them to meet the butcher's eye as he would wish to 

 see them. The flock is being penned at night on the three-acre, 

 No. 1 1, with a view to improving the bottom of this young pasture, 

 which has grown somewhat thin. In the daytime they run out on 

 one or other of the meadows, where root is thrown to them, and 

 every night they are shut in a new fold on the three-acre and 

 receive a ration of corn, hay, and beet. 



One of the ploughmen, Fairhead, is harrowing the pastures 

 with the two-horse patent chain drag. This is a new instrument 

 which I have bought this year, and, though it looks light, a very 

 effective one, being so contrived that every part of it pulling against 

 the other part causes an equal strain to come upon each tooth or 

 cutter. These teeth are solid triangular wedges of steel, which 

 bite into the moss and tear it up. Either face of this harrow can 

 be used for dragging purposes, but one of them cuts a good deal 

 more deeply than the other. 



All my three mares here have proved to be in foal, also the 

 old one at Bedingham. This is rather too much of a good thing, 

 as while they are attending to their domestic duties we may be 

 rather short of horses. I did not think that the ancient dame at 

 Bedingham would produce any more foals, nor should I have 

 greatly grieved if she had taken the same view of the matter. I 

 am tired of her Roman-nosed, long-legged offspring, which, 

 although they are good animals enough, feed them as you will, 



