FEBRUARY 109 



of wheat grown on the All Hallows land at i8s. ^d. the coomb of 

 1 8 stone, or $6s. 6d. the quarter. This is sixpence less than he 

 was offered last week ; but the markets for corn are so dreadfully 

 uncertain, and so much at the mercy of American ' corners ' and 

 speculators in * futures,' that it seems best to take it, as, for aught 

 we know, by next sale day wheat may be down two or three 

 shillings a quarter. Of course, on the other hand, it may be up, 

 especially as it is said that there is really a shortage in the world's 

 supply. But this it is not safe to count on. 



February n. To-day is dull and mild, with a very high 

 glass. I hear that the sick ox, which was sold to the butcher, 

 after its decease was found to be suffering, not from its third 

 stomach, as the veterinary thought, nor from liver, as I thought, but 

 from its brain, on which it had an abscess. When it was being 

 driven away, the animal suddenly rolled over, though afterwards it 

 picked itself up, and managed to get along in a lop-sided fashion. 

 On dissection, the abscess was found to have burst recently, 

 probably when it fell. No doubt it was caused in the first instance 

 by a heavy blow over the eye. This may have been received on 

 board ship, or more probably it was inflicted by a drover's stick. 

 The poor creature must have suffered greatly ; indeed, it is 

 wonderful that it did not either die or go mad. Here is another 

 caution against buying these store cattle, of which it is impossible 

 to know the past history. 



This afternoon I went to Bedingham, where I found the 

 draining nearly finished, and Moore in sad straits to find bushes 

 for the end of it. He has begun to plough this field, No. 18, 

 that is to be planted with swedes and kohl rabi. First of all he 

 runs the plough along the side of each drain, turning a spit of 

 soil on to the loose lumps of earth with which it is roughly filled 

 in. Then he sets to work in the ordinary fashion ; although a 

 newly drained field never looks quite neat after the first ploughing, 

 owing to the clods of bottom clay with which it is sprinkled, the 

 bits of stick and other debris, and the parti-coloured lines that 



