THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 235 



"combined " machiDe, and the cutting bar was made of 

 ash ; hence the severance of the stems was not close 

 enough. This I sold, and have since had three others, 

 by various makers, bought second-hand at sales ; which, 

 I would suggest to the young farmer, on the strength of 

 my accumulated experience, is a very treacherous plan. 

 It is far better to pay a few extra pounds, and get a fresh 

 implement. You can never know the exact condition 

 of the article, and the repairs soon mount to an awful 

 height, without either obtaining for you any satisfaction 

 in the end. On our strip of alluvial soil there is a succu- 

 lent crop of nearly two feet in depth, intermixed with 

 great patches of docks. The leaves of this plant I shall 

 dry and store like tobacco, to steam periodically into 

 their original dimensions, and mix with meal for the 

 piggery. Fresh boiled, they constitute an admirable 

 element of the wash-tub, and are much esteemed by 

 the cottagers. I am so afraid that we shall smash up 

 many a partridge's nest, they are so thick upon the 

 ground. We have a lot of pheasants just hatched 

 under " a silky : " the eggs came to light on the re- 

 moval of some apple-tree prunings for fire-wood. It 

 was very amusing to us all that the silky old gentleman 

 must needs keep watch and vigil by his patient spouse, 

 sitting with stupid inexorability alongside in her box. 

 The little lads are of opinion that he is a muff, and 

 dare not face the other bantams without his wife's 

 skirts to run behind when threatened by an adversary. 

 Perhaps he cannot fight. He has the funniest way of 

 walking — a most exaggerated ultra-gallic gesticulatory 

 kind of movement, reminding one of the defenceless 

 hop of a fettered donkey, when he is forced off his 

 steady domestic paces by the challenge of a neighbour. 



