WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 143 



varies a week or so according to the season, whether 

 it has been mild and favourable or hard and late. 

 This still remains a favourite occasion for a party. 

 Sheep-shearing in sheep districts, as the Downs, is also 

 remembered : some of the old folk make much of it ; 

 but as a general rule this ancient festival has fallen 

 a good deal into disuse. It is not made the grand 

 feast it once was for master and man alike at least 

 not in these parts. With the change that has come 

 across agriculture at large a variation has taken place 

 in the life of the people. New festivals, and of a 

 different character, have sprung up. 



The most important of these is the annual auction 

 on the farm : the system of selling by auction which 

 has become so widely diffused has, indeed, quite 

 revolutionized agriculture in many ways. Where the 

 farm is celebrated for a special breed of sheep, the 

 great event of the year is the annual auction at home 

 of ram lambs. Where the farm is famous for cattle, 

 the chief occasion is the yearly sale of young short- 

 horns. And recently, since steam plough and artificial 

 manure and general high pressure have been intro- 

 duced, many large arable farmers sell their corn crops 

 standing. The purchaser pays a certain, price for the 

 wheat as it grows, reaps it when ripe, and makes what 

 profit he can. 



In either case the auctioneer is called in, a dinner 

 is prepared, and everybody who likes to come is 

 welcome. If there happens to be a great barn near 

 the homestead, it is usually used for the dinner. The 



