108 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



making a goodly store of manure for autumnal dressing 

 without the aid of straw. Thanks, then — my profoundest 

 thanks — to the kind upper regions that load our loved 

 Wye with this precious fertilising matter, and save our 

 pocket the unsatisfactory purchase of so many tons of 

 '' artificial." 



There is some advantage beyond the beautiful scenery 

 it affords, in living upon a side-land. The turnpike 

 road, of necessity, is made and mended with limestone ; 

 the washings from which, as they come conducted in 

 small rills along our orchard pastures, being allowed to 

 wander from fixed points at their own sweet will, develop 

 and foster an under-carpet of clover which fascinates the 

 Southdown flocks, keeping them devoutly to the watered 

 spots. Without this aid there would be but a picking 

 of weakly grass. 



We have two fields of wheat this year, the history of 

 which is very different. The one was sown on a rye- 

 grass ley, which had been closely fed with sheep and 

 cattle for two years, having received besides a heavy 

 refresher of some patent grass-manure — the beneficial 

 effects of which, I am bound to say, I never saw. This 

 plant started well, and then reverted, being for weeks a 

 sickly growth — so much so that I was once half-tempted 

 to plough it up. Once, during a moniing ride, I found 

 a regiment of rooks in grave investigation of the thinner 

 places. Taking care not to disturb them, I see now the 

 service they did me by their wire-worm lunch. The 

 field was rolled with the heaviest Crosskill, still for some 

 weeks the plant was puny and consumptive. It has 

 lately picked up, and is now advancing at a gi-eat pace, 

 promising to be of fine stature after all. It reminds 

 one of the curious way in which some stunted children 



