JUL Y 287 



home yard. These roofs, although not ornamental (what, I wonder, 

 would our forefathers have said had they been asked to cover 

 their stacks with tin ?), are exceedingly useful. I bought them 

 four or five years ago, in a season when, owing to the drought, we 

 had literally no straw left with which to thatch, at a cost, if I re- 

 member rightly, of about 4/. los. each. Since then they have 

 been in use every year, and the hay protected by them has in- 

 variably been found to be as sweet and good immediately under 

 the iron as in any other part of the stack. The roofs themselves 

 consist of an iron ridge with grooves, to which are hung the 

 galvanized sheets. When the stack has sufficiently settled, these 

 sheets are fastened to the hay by long corkscrew-shaped pins, 

 which, if properly driven home, secure them against any wind, 

 although in the course of years the iron is apt to get torn at the 

 eyelet-holes and corners. One disadvantage of these roofs is 

 that the stacks must be built to fit them, and another that they 

 undoubtedly look ugly in a farmyard, although this fault might 

 be mitigated by painting them straw-colour. This I have always 

 intended to do, but as yet we have never found time to be aesthetic. 

 At Bedingham on Wednesday afternoon I found all the hay 

 up, though a few loads of it were still standing upon the carts and 

 waggons ready to top up the last stack when it settles. According to 

 my measurements, which may be inaccurate, I think that we have 

 thirty -four or thirty-five tons of excellent hay on the two Bedingham 

 stacks, a good crop off a farm of a hundred acres on which no 

 clover layer has been grown this season. But throughout the 

 country the cut of grass is one of the largest that has been 

 secured for many years, so hay will be cheap. Indeed, I doubt 

 whether valuers will lay it at much more than 2/. the ton on the 

 stack. This, however, will not hurt farmers who have any 

 to spare, and can afford to save it. Hay, if re-thatched, will keep 

 five or six years, and perhaps before that time has come and gone 

 it may fetch nearer y/. than 2/. the ton. Here, alas ! we have so 

 many mouths to feed that even in plentiful seasons forage seems to 

 melt away almost to the last stalk ; I doubt if at the present 



