4 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



having attended to orders, one could comfortably repose ; 

 and is not my bailiff in the right when he says, as he 

 often does, compassionately, " Please, sir, I wouldn't be 

 you for anything. When my work's over my mind is 

 free, and I can go and have a pipe upon the stile ; but 

 your work is always going on, and your mind is never 

 free ! " 



But from another point of view, the exceeding dry- 

 ness of the past summer has been very trying to the 

 temper of the cattle-breeder. Whether from this cause, 

 as is likely, or not, anyhow the cows don't prove in-calf, 

 especially if they be at all obese. They should be 

 cool enough, in all conscience, for they have stood for 

 months, half the day, knee-deep in the waters of a 

 swift and limpid river; but somehow they don't hold. 

 I see that Mr. Tanner notices the occasional occurrence 

 of this sad fact, and attributes it, in his able essay just 

 published in the Royal Agricultural Journal, to the 

 extraordinary heat. Whatever the cause, anyhow it is 

 a gi-eat sell, especially to those who own Shorthorns of 

 price. What with the wife grumbling incessantly about 

 the want of cream, and the certain loss of interest on 

 capital invested, arising from this barrenness, it is really 

 no joke. I have at this moment three bulls in my stalls, * 

 and about a score of buxom cows upon the pasture, 

 not one of which do we know certainly to be in-calf 



Writing of cattle brings up a pretty picture of home- 

 stead enjoyment that I saw, not long since, in my farm- 

 yard. Upon one of the last broiling days, just under 

 the lee of the cider-mill, in a sort of moat, tliat I keep 

 full in case of fire in the stackyard, there stood, calmly 

 chewing her cud, and just flicking the flies off reflec- 

 tively from her flank with her tail, an aged white cow, 



