JUNE 219 



evidently very indignant because they are cut off from their lawful 

 and accustomed habitation. If the doors are set open they will 

 fly in once or twice and look round, after which, very likely, 

 there is nothing more to be seen of them for about a month, 

 when they commence to nest. 



This morning I walked round by Baker's, where we are engaged 

 in a desperate struggle with the millions of weeds springing 

 among the beet, and indeed everywhere. By the side of the beans 

 also are little hales of docks, pulled from among them, and I 

 daresay that more are left than have been taken. If ' one year's 

 weed means seven years' seed,' how many years' seed will be fur- 

 nished by seven years' weed ? That is approximately the problem 

 which we have to work out on Baker's. The carrots on the 

 Thwaite field, No. 28, are pricking through nicely, but it is 

 difficult to horse-hoe them as yet, owing to the extreme fineness 

 of the seedlings, which makes a mistake with the knives easy, as 

 the hoer cannot always see where the lines run. Some people 

 sow a few white turnips with the carrot seed, as these, being large- 

 leaved and growing rapidly among the tiny carrots, are a guide 

 to the hoeman and to the lad leading the horse. We did so 

 last year, but I believe that this season we have put in some 

 parsnips instead. 



Hood has visited Loddon market to-day for the first time 

 since I have been farming. He says that it is a good market, 

 especially for pigs, which is strange, as it lacks a railway. Our 

 market at Bungay seems to be going from bad to worse : there are 

 few sellers and hardly any buyers ; indeed, farmers no longer send 

 their stock there. They blame the auctioneer, whether rightly 

 or wrongly I do not know ; but I think it very possible that the 

 slow death by atrophy of this market is due to natural decay con- 

 sequent on long-continued agricultural depression. The owner of 

 the Corn -hall told me the other day that he lets the merchants' 

 stands where they do business on Thursdays for, I think, about 

 one-third only of the rent received by his father. This fact alone 

 is eloquent of the disaster that has overtaken us all. 



