JUNE 253 



and looking very tall and strong. Of the barley, that on No. 5 

 seems by far the best ; indeed, by comparison with it the other two 

 fields are yellow and stunted, owing to the long-continued cold and 

 wet. No. 5, it may be remembered, was the piece first sown, 

 having been drilled on February i, a very early date for this heavy 

 land. Hood was somewhat opposed to this rash venture, but I 

 was in favour of it, as all the best authorities seem to agree that if 

 only the land is in proper order, the earlier barley is got in, the 

 better the chance of a good cast and sample. It must be borne 

 in mind, however, that this field has received a dressing of crushed- 

 bone manure, whereas the other two have had none, to which, and 

 not to the early drilling, its superior appearance may be due. 



The kohl-rabi and the beet look fairly well, though both these 

 crops require dry weather and sun. The swedes, on the other 

 hand, which share the newly drained field, No. 18, with the kohl- 

 rabi, are a total failure, for that dreadful insect, 'fly,' has taken them 

 off so completely that to-day we have re-drilled the land with white 

 turnip. The fly, I hear, has been very destructive this season in 

 the neighbourhood of Bedingham ; but, oddly enough, at Ditching- 

 ham we have been little troubled with it indeed, I never remember 

 a better plant of swedes upon this land. I hope also that we are 

 fairly safe from its ravages, as the belief here is that it does not do 

 much harm after the longest day, which is now a week behind us. 



The red-poll ox that I think of showing has improved con- 

 siderably, especially in the hind quarters ; but the iron-roofed shed 

 under which he lives is hot, notwithstanding the hedgeside rubbish 

 that has been thrown on to the roof to break the force of the sun, 

 and cattle never make good progress when they are heated and 

 teased by flies. To remedy this I have told Moore to get the 

 carpenter to cut out two or three feet of boarding at the back of 

 the shed, and to make a sliding shutter to close over the opening 

 when needful. 



I never knew a place so fertile in wild orchids as is Websdill 

 Wood. To-day I found quantities of a new variety, Orchis macu- 

 lata, which have appeared now that the Orchis latifolia has done its 



