THE DAILY LIFE OF OUU FARM. 271 



February, 1870. 



What glorious, bright, sparkling, frosty weather it 

 was ! It put everyone in such spirits. The bailiff 

 merry, the labourers pitch with a will, as the empty 

 dung-carts return rapidly over the hard fallow. We 

 are putting a good coating on the autumn-planted 

 potatoes, because what rich soil there was a-top when 

 the stubble was ploughed for planting lies now nine 

 inches deep, and their over-covering mould may be raw 

 and insipid, as it is a field that we have not long had 

 in possession, and the last owner did his farm but 

 niggardly. 



The river has sunk so much — probably from the 

 binding-up of the mountain-springs — that I have been 

 able to make a thorough inspection of the effect of the 

 ietties, the strong mid-day sunlight showing minutely 

 not only the material and make-up of the river-bed, 

 but the very motes, too, floating in the air under the 

 wall. I find that gravel has been scooped up some- 

 where above, and deposited in a fine sloping bed 

 behind each pier, while between them the water rests 

 so still, that, although there is a strong current outside, 

 the dry broken twigs thrown in don't move on in the 

 least. I long for March to come, that we may complete 

 our work by sloping down the steep places of the bank, 

 filling up what holes remain with pared rough turf from 

 a neighbouring meadow, which has been only recently 

 drained, and is covered with a coarse mat of sour tus- 

 sock grass that no stock will touch. I shall so kill two 

 birds. I shall defend my bank against the river by 

 such a tough packing of the hollows, as it will get 

 disheartened in attempting to pick out, and I shall 



