316 A FARMER'S YEAR 



in catching this particular fly, after I had seen it lay an enormous 

 number of eggs. It is an insect greatly resembling a bee, with an 

 arched tail, or egg-depositor, and very large and transparent eyes. 

 Hood assured me that they live in nests like ordinary bees, but on 

 this point I think that, for once in his life, Hood is mistaken. 



To-day I received the report of the analyst on the stomach of 

 the foal, which was sent to him to be examined. It is a negative 

 document, for he can tell us nothing of the cause of death beyond 

 that it was probably brought about by a violent vegetable poison, 

 of which we were already convinced. What is not negative 

 is his bill, which, instead of the ten shillings that I under- 

 stood I should have to pay, amounts to three guineas, which 

 sum, however, he has reduced to two guineas on the urgent 

 representation of the veterinary who forwarded him the organ to 

 be analysed. I daresay that the charge is fair and reasonable 

 enough, although the investigations of the chemist leave us none 

 the wiser. I wish to point out, however, that such fees are beyond 

 the means of the farmer. The value of such a foal as I lost, when 

 alive, may have been four guineas, and half that amount is too much 

 to pay for abortive post-mortem researches on its stomach. If the 

 Board of Agriculture, or the County Councils, could provide 

 laboratories, where such inquiries might be carried out at really 

 cheap rates, it would be a great boon to farmers. 1 



This evening the air was very close, and the gnats were ex- 

 traordinarily active. Indeed, the sound of their humming re- 

 minded me much of that of the mosquitoes on some of the tropical 

 rivers in Mexico or in the African fever districts. If watched, these 



1 I find, what I did not know at the time I wrote the above passage, that 

 the Royal Agricultural Society, to which I belong, will undertake such investi- 

 gations for its members at very reasonable rates. The cost of an examination 

 of viscera for all vegetable poisons is I/., and the highest charge in the scale 

 for more complicated operations is 2/. Charges for various other services, 

 such as the treatment of sick animals, the inquiry into outbreaks of disease 

 among stock, or the reporting on the purity of samples of seeds, &c., seem to 

 be on the same moderate scale. It is a pity that so few farmers know where 

 they can find such advantages. 



