322 A FARMER'S YEAR 



August 29. Yesterday being Sunday I employed the after- 

 noon in walking over the farm at Bedingham, in order to learn 

 how they were getting on with the harvest. Generally I find 

 something at Bedingham that interests my bucolic mind, and 

 yesterday the discoveries were two : one satisfactory and the 

 other the reverse. On the new pasture, No. 19, that is sown 

 with the deep-rooted herbs, the young cattle are grazing upon the 

 aftermath or eddish which has grown since the hay was carried. 

 I watched them, and was glad to see that whenever they came 

 to a plant of chicory they ate it with relish almost down to the 

 ground. The second sight I saw was that of long streams of 

 thistle seeds being borne by a stiff breeze on to my land from 

 territories in the possession of neighbouring powers. I believe 

 that it has been declared by competent courts of law that an 

 action lies against a neighbour whose fields produce an un- 

 reasonable crop of weeds to the detriment of other land which is 

 well farmed. I never heard, however, of such a suit being 

 brought in East Anglia. It seems to me that the damage would 

 be very difficult to prove. 



To-day has been cold, and during the afternoon the threaten- 

 ing rain fell in showers. About eleven o'clock the machine 

 stopped cutting the wheat on Baker's, where it works to perfection, 

 for the corn here is upstanding and not too thick, and we began 

 to cart the black oats from the glebe field, No. 40. These we 

 secured, but the drizzle prevented us from carrying the white oats 

 from No. 39. Oats are grain that must be carted quite dry, for 

 if damp they heat and spoil. Wheat, on the other hand espe- 

 cially if it stands on the stack for some months before thrashing 

 may be carried when damp without injury to the corn. Buck 

 tells me that he has carted wheat in a rain so heavy that he was 

 soaked to the skin, and that on being thrashed the grain was 

 found to have taken no harm. 



This morning I was talking to the bricklayer who is rebuilding 

 one of the cottages on Baker's Farm for the owner, Mr. Carr. He 

 gave me a brick, which he found built into the wall, which has 



