276 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



I have said, I borrowed from what I saw in Suffolk. 

 My sands are run, and so good-bye. 



April, 1870. 



This frost hath enabled us to get through what the 

 baliff calls a "sight of work." Although authorities 

 are agreed that upon the whole it is best to haul fold 

 manure on the leys and pasture during autumn, inas- 

 much as thereby the food has time to soak down to and 

 into the rootlets so that they are prepared to strike out 

 vigorously with the first burst of spring, yet having our 

 yards full we were tempted to go on top-dressing as 

 long as the hard surface allowed us without trespass. 

 Were we a gi'een field ourselves our argument would be 

 that good food could come never amiss, so upon that 

 hint we acted, and can only hope that our wishes may 

 be realised by the gathering in of a grand hay crop. 



The lambs are falling fast, and as yet we have been 

 very fortunate. The quiet dams look so comfortable in 

 their pens with an infant alongside. We were hurried 

 in our preparation at last, and so adopted a plan which 

 we should adhere to again from its simplicity. With a 

 hay-knife we cut into, or rather hollowed out, a recess 

 around a straw rick, into which we set hurdles at right 

 angles to the stack and about one-and-a-half yards apart. 

 Upon the portion of the hurdles that ran under the 

 straw we laid a tier of spare spruce boards : some small 

 gorse having then been pulled through the lower bars, 

 a long range of most comfortable pens was ready, and 

 that, too, in an astonishing short time. 



We got our first crop of water-cresses last week. A 

 mistake I made in planting the bed I may as well re- 

 count for the guidance of others. I laid a floor of rich 



