230 A FARMER'S YEAR 



impossible to clean the land, for so many of the weeds take fresh 

 root wherever the hoe has left them. 



June 10. Last night's rain was very heavy indeed ; this 

 morning all the ditches are full, and I expect that by to-morrow 

 the floods will be out on the common. To-day the weather is 

 clearing a little, but, notwithstanding the high glass, it remains 

 unsettled; indeed, this year the glass seems a very uncertain 

 guide. As the men cannot stand upon the land, which is as soft as 

 mud, we are carting manure from the yards, and taking the oppor- 

 tunity to drag up some of the docks on the long marsh. This is 

 a job that never seems to get itself done, as there is always 

 something more pressing on hand ; also docks can only be pulled 

 while the land is very soft, and when the marsh is being fed. 

 Even then the dragging out of these fangy, deep-rooted weeds is 

 a backbreaking task, of which three hours at a stretch is enough 

 for any man. 



In a former chapter of this book I inveighed against the per- 

 vading dock, asking what useful part it can possibly perform in the 

 economy of nature. Many very many kind correspondents 

 have since written to enlighten me on the point, and from them 

 I learn that what I have always considered a pest is, it appears, a 

 plant of extraordinary value. 1 To begin with, there are eleven 

 varieties of dock, if not more ; various grubs and caterpillars feed 

 upon them, and they have medicinal properties. But their main 

 use is the discovery of that excellent institution the Colonial 

 College in Suffolk, who have found out that one British variety 

 of dock produces four times as much tannin as does oak bark, 

 which tannin is believed to be perfectly suitable to trade purposes 



: One of these letters is worthy of preservation. It begins, ' I notice in 

 the East Anglian Daily Times that you would like to know what good Docks 

 can be put to. What will you giie me if I tell you? ' Oh, careful and most 

 provident correspondent, you deserve to prosper in this huckstering world. 

 Another epistle suggests that docks might be destroyed by dropping quicksilver 

 upon them, or that I ' might try inoculation on the Pasteur system ' ! 



