JULY 263 



feed off a growing crop upon) the whole of this little field, and 

 afterwards to plant it with Indian corn, as we did with great success 

 in the case of some other land last year. Owing to the heaviness 

 of the vetch crop, however, this has proved impracticable, so we 

 are leaving more than half of it to stand for seed, which always 

 comes in useful and saves the expense of buying. Notwithstand- 

 ing the wet, that part which has been fed is extraordinarily hard, 

 and even after being harrowed and rolled is quite unfit to be 

 sown until a good rain falls. No other stock tread land so close 

 as sheep, especially in wet weather, as their sharp little feet press 

 and re-press every inch of it a score of times, till it becomes of the 

 consistency of a green brick, or that variety of building material, 

 now rarely used, which we know in this county as clay lump. 



All the ewes have now gone to Bedingham to run in Websdill 

 Wood until the remaining lambs are thoroughly weaned. In a 

 fortnight's time or so the Southdown ewes will return from Bed- 

 ingham, when they and the lambs will be fatted together for the 

 butcher, a fate which the blackface ewes escape, as we are holding 

 them for breeding another year. 



At Bedingham this afternoon I found them carting hay from 

 the two-and-a-half-acre new pasture, No. 10, which was laid down 

 last year. It is a very good crop. No. 19, by the wood, has also 

 been cut a capital crop. The farming reader may remember 

 that this was the first field laid down at Bedingham, that in which 

 the deep-rooted seeds were sown according to Mr. Elliott's receipt, 

 and it is for this reason that I watch it with peculiar interest. 

 Up to the present the plan has certainly answered admirably, and, 

 so far as I can judge, the field, which, beyond feeding and a partial 

 dressing of mud, has received no manure, looks like making a 

 really sound pasture on land out of which I was told that pasture 

 could not be created. The herbs, and especially the chicory, it 

 is true, throw up stout and somewhat unsightly stalks, which even 

 now are rather tough to cut ; but these, while young, are perfectly 

 edible, and make no great show in the withering hay. 



Here at Bedingham the hay sel is conducted in the old fashion, 



