AUGUST 293 



To-day we have finished carting the hay from Baker's Marsh, 

 No. 46; also I sold two young red-poll heifers to a clergyman 

 in this neighbourhood for io/. apiece. Considering how they 

 are bred it is not a high price, but of course more than they 

 would fetch upon the market and more than they are worth to 

 keep for fatting purposes. I am coming rapidly to the conclusion, 

 however, that it is a mistake to consign so many of these pedigree 

 animals to the butcher. They have some of the best blood in 

 East Anglia in their veins, and ought to be worth more to sell for 

 stock purposes, although, of course, it is hard for the small breeder 

 like myself to compete with the large and well-advertised herds. 



August 2. To-day we are hoeing root upon the farm, of 

 which there is a deal to be got through before harvest begins. On 

 my way back from the root field I went to look at the pease on 

 No. 37, and found them absolutely scarlet with red-weed or poppies, 

 to which this land is very liable. If possible we propose to cut 

 them a little green, so as to kill the thistles and poppies before 

 they shed their seed abroad. 



I inspected also the carrots on the Thwaite field, No. 28, to 

 find that the rabbits are doing them much damage. These 

 pestilent vermin, which are unusually numerous this year, for they 

 bred all the winter through, come at night and bite out the 

 crowns, an injury from which the plants never quite recover. 

 Although many people have grumbled at it, certainly the Hares 

 and Rabbits Bill has proved a most useful measure, that is, to 

 those who avail themselves honestly of its provisions and do not 

 make it an excuse for poaching. As I know from bitter experience, 

 there is nothing more maddening to a farmer than to see his 

 crops injured, or perhaps destroyed, by these mischievous brutes, 

 which, if there should chance to be any coverts or sandy banks in 

 the neighbourhood, it is almost impossible to keep under, however 

 much one may shoot, snare, or trap. A single nest of them in a 

 barley field will destroy the yield of quite a large area of the corn ; 

 indeed, I am inclined to think that they do even more damage to 



