278 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



quantity of the superabundant young trees he has been 

 thinning out to split into pales to fence around a rough 

 piece of fern and bramble where the pheasants love to 

 make their nests, and which at present is open to 

 invasion by the pestilent curs of every passer by. One 

 I helped him to fall ; and of course knowing better 

 than he did, and pulling the rope somewhat differently 

 to what he desired me, got well punished by seeing a 

 pet straight young Scotch fir snap off in two like a 

 carrot under the weighty head of the overthrown stick. 

 A lesson for your obstinate conceit, sir ! 



A mixture of good and bad luck has attended the 

 cowsheds. One most valuable bull calf has been lost 

 through the stupid attendant giving his dam a feed of 

 frosted swedes. An obstinate diarrhoea took him off. 

 On the other hand our good fortune with the ewes con- 

 tinues, which I attribute in a great degree to their 

 having been very evenly kept during the last three 

 months. It is the up and down feeding that plays the 

 mischief with dam and offspring — now starvation, now 

 abundance — the poor veins cannot stand such abuse. 

 One farmer I knew lost the great part of his yearling 

 sheep last year from this cause. Our best Guernseys 

 have produced us fine heifer calves by a handsome 

 young Shorthorn sire. So we must put the one thing 

 against the other. Keep forging on against a head sea 

 is the grand rule of agricultural life. The storm and 

 current are sure to relax their violence in time. 



We have had in the poultry-yard a singular ilhistra- 

 tion of the difficulty there is in breeding away the 

 characteristics of any new cross one may adopt. Some 

 years since we received some beautifully marked ban- 

 tams which had been imported from Lucknow. They 



