382 A FARMER'S YEAR 



* Please, sir, six of us little stops airit 'ad no beef? Beer and 

 food, it may be explained, have to be conveyed to stops at their 

 posts, which they must not leave. 



When I was alone at one stand, quite in the centre of the 

 wood, I saw a beautiful specimen of the golden-crested wren 

 picking insects from a bough literally within three feet of me. 

 I never knew before that these friendly little birds haunted the 

 interiors of large woods. 



To-day the weather is of the most perfect stillness and beauty ; 

 so still, indeed, that the shed leaves float downwards softly as 

 falling feathers. While we were at luncheon, suddenly, and 

 without the smallest warning, a large piece fell off the bough 

 of one of the great garden elms on to the path beneath. Had 

 anyone been walking on that path under the tree he would cer- 

 tainly have been killed. It is this trick which elms have of shed- 

 ding their boughs in perfectly still weather that makes them 

 such dangerous timber to plant near houses. So far as my 

 observation goes, these limbs come down in late spring or in 

 autumn, that is when the sap is either rising or falling. On 

 examining the wood of the bough, I found that it was absolutely 

 rotten and devoid of all strength and virtue ; indeed, it seems 

 marvellous that it should have lasted so long. 



This afternoon Hood and I came to the conclusion that it 

 would be desirable to make a change in our farm policy. Here- 

 tofore we have been in the habit of fatting all the progeny of my 

 red-polls which we have not actually required to rear as cows. In 

 future I mean to alter this by keeping the best of the heifers 

 till I can sell them as down-calvers, and the best of the male 

 animals to be disposed of as young bulls. Of course, this pre- 

 supposes a market for rny stock, which is not quite easy to get in 

 face of the competition of the large breeders. Already, however, 

 there are inquiries ; thus, this year I have sold four things, two 

 cows and two heifers, to people who wish to breed from them. I 

 , cannot see why I should not in time establish a connection 

 and get fair prices, as, after all, my cattk are practically as 



