228 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



I see that in Scotland there is a raid being made upon 

 the " pigeons and crows." The foimer right well deserve 

 it, and the latter, too, should be kept within bounds by 

 shooting ; but to poison them is cruel as well as indis- 

 criminate in its effects. You cannot persuade the ordi- 

 nary farmer of the good they do in keeping down the 

 dor or chaffer-beetle, an unchecked multitude of which 

 in France, not long since, committed such devastation 

 as one has only heard of before a cloud of locusts. I 

 was told the other day of a man who had found his own 

 chanticleer dead upon his field. How it happened, 

 perhaps, he won't tell. It is astonishing how that piece 

 of wheat has freshened from which I mentioned lately 

 that a boy had vainly attempted to keep the rooks 

 away, and into which the moles worked. 1 let them do 

 their worst; and that worst I now find to be an excel- 

 lent service. 



And so the Birmingham sale of yearling bulls 

 resulted in a shuffle. We will hope now that . the 

 footing upon which it was established will be altered. 

 The fifty-pound prize is sure to attract exhibitors. To 

 compel, as has been attempted, a sale " without 

 reserve," at 20 guineas, must keep all good animals 

 away. It gives the buyer an unfair advantage. I 

 have been unlucky lately in having a large fall of 

 bull calves. I thought I had leanit a secret to ensure 

 heifers, but don't find it answer this year, although 

 it appeared to do so last season. 



The nomenclature of our young ones occupying our 

 spare thoughts, one audacious fellow that has a cer- 

 tain head-up-time-of-the-regency air about him I am 

 tempteji to designate "Fraudulent Bankrupt" if one 

 could but pack up the two words, German-like, into one. 



