272 A FARMER'S YEAR 



its turn to roll off presently to the stack-yard, a labourer still 

 seated atop of the towering load. There it is heaped and 

 hidden in the bowels of the great stack, to be cut again in the 

 dark days of winter as fragrant food for the cows, that munch it 

 eagerly while they stand in the shelter of the shed and dream of 

 the sweet spring grasses. 



In my diary for April I think that I spoke of the difficulty our 

 forefathers must have had in feeding their cattle in winter before 

 the days of root culture. Since then, in ' The Five Hundred 

 Points of Good Husbandry' of Thomas Tusser, who wrote in 

 1557, I find that straw and hay were eked out with the bare 

 branches of trees. Here is the quotation : 



If frost do continue, this lesson doth well, 



For comfort of cattle the fuel to fell : 



From every tree the superfluous boughs, 



Now prune for thy neat, thereupon to go browse. 



In pruning and trimming all manner of trees, 

 Reserve to each cattle their properly fees. 

 If snow do continue, sheep hardly that fare, 

 Crave mistle and ivy for them for to spare. 



In those days the cattle and ' neat ' that is, horned oxen must 

 have looked forward to the coming of spring with considerable 

 anxiety. This, indeed, is still the case in Africa, where it is 

 not uncommon to see oxen that were fat as butter at the be- 

 ginning of winter so thin and weak before the grass grows again 

 that they are scarcely able to stand. Many indeed die of poverty. 



July 14. Yesterday we had some showers, which stopped the 

 hay, but to-day is warm and rather dull, and we are carting again 

 from the back lawn. At Bedingham they have not carted any 

 more, but are cutting the far meadow, No. n. Although the 

 machine has its beauties, after a long course of it it is pretty to 

 watch the mowers at work, and to hear the long hu-ush of the 

 scythes as they sweep through the deep cool grass. I found 

 Moore indignant because Hood, perhaps by way of chastening his 



