312 A FARMER'S YEAR 



tragedy. He says that his man tells him that the trees he cut 

 were damaged in a gale last March twelvemonth. It may be so, 

 but in that event it is strange that the wind chanced to strike 

 the lower and more sheltered boughs only ; also that theii 

 removal had been put off for so long, and that the man 

 did not mention these facts, but told me that he cut these 

 rungs away by order of his master. However, they are gone, 

 leaving the world poorer by two beautiful oaks, so there is an end 

 of the case. I daresay that if they still stand, in another century 

 or more the upper boughs will have thickened and they may 

 look picturesque again ; at any rate, I like to think so. 



In driving through this heavy-land country I noticed two 

 things : that the system of cleaning fields by summer fallowing 

 them is more prevalent than with us, and that they use a good 

 many ' maffies.' ' Maffie ' is derived from hermaphrodite, and 

 signifies a cart on to which, for the purpose of carting hay or corn, 

 is affixed a contrivance like the fore-part of a waggon, so that in 

 fact it is neither cart nor waggon. Hence the term. In all 

 this stiff-soil district the corn crops seem to be heavy this year. 



August 22. Saturday the 2Oth was a fine, indeed a perfect, 

 harvest day. The men were engaged in cutting the barley 

 on the Thwaite field, No. 28, where there is a fair but not a 

 heavy crop, with a bottom rather full of layer, as this portion of 

 No. 28 is sown down for clover hay next year. The sight of the men, 

 one following the other across the field in a jagged line as they 

 cut down the ripe corn with wide sweeps of the scythe, made a 

 fine picture of effort strenuous and combined. The place is pretty 

 too, with the windmill in the background, and the heat-haze 

 softened the scene, keeping it in tone and making it restful. 

 One of the features of these mowings is the almost invariable 

 presence of a man with a dog someone in the village who is 

 fond of a bit of sport. As the mowers approach the end of a stretch 

 a bunny or two will bolt, and be swept up by the dog before it 

 can win the shelter of the hedge. The rabbits thus obtained are, 



