THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 187 



commission upon all purchased, on the condition of 

 their spreading the inquiry. I sent them a large, offer 

 of both fruits, only with the proviso that the cash must 

 come previous to the goods being despatched. Of course, 

 I need not tell you there was nothing heard further of 

 the parties. 



We have been all storing quantities of acorns and 

 chesnuts for the pigs in winter, any quantity of which 

 we can get gathered for Is. the bushel acorns, and 6d. 

 the bushel chesnuts. A high wind that had just sprung 

 up will help the accumulation. Unfortunately it is down 

 stream, so that we cannot get a sail upon the river. 



The spring-planted potatoes are, I fear, a great mess. 

 We are waiting for a fine day or two to raise the burden 

 of the crop with Howard's new plough, and so in a cer- 

 tain degree one nurtures hope. A lot of the garden- 

 grown, however, that has been raised exhibits a great 

 deal of rottenness in the state. I am having a piece of 

 stubble deep-ploughed, to set all the bigger diseased 

 tubers at once, as we take up the main crop, and only 

 hope that the experiment will answer next year as 

 successfully as it did this. 



We have a number of hands raking up the abundant 

 downfall of dead leaves where they lie thickest in this 

 woodland district, to be strewn with a free hand over a 

 mattress of nut and elm chippings, which are packed in 

 the basin of the yards, after the fashion of the heather 

 couch upon which the Highlanders bore the wounded 

 Waverley. Only pack the twigs close enough, and it 

 affords a most elastic bed for the cattle, even in what 

 would otherwise be wet spots. 



The missus nearly lost her best Alderney a few days 

 since, and unhappily I hear that the disease which 



