THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 279 



themselves crossed a little witli some Seabrigl\t fowls, 

 but died at an early period, owing, I think, to the 

 strange inclemency of the weather. We saved some 

 half-bred chickens, which have since intermixed with 

 the Seabrights, with the effect only of rendering the 

 succeeding hatches as they grew up more dowdy-looking 

 and leg-feathered. These enlarged hens were very 

 useful for sitting on pheasant eggs, and had a certain 

 wild liking for life in the woods. Last season, however, 

 there got mated a pair of the first cross — that is, own 

 brother and sister — and their produce has reverted to 

 the Lucknow sort. The shape is similar, broad, rather 

 low and lengthy with deep feather in the legs, and a 

 peculiar colour of the plumage. White speckled with 

 bluish red and black represents the imported pair 

 almost exactly, ' How to go on now is the puzzle. There 

 is, clearly, room for instructive experiment. An emi- 

 nent Southdown breeder and Southdown judge, who 

 some years ago sold off his famous flock and has since 

 been experimenting with a cross, told me that his thoory 

 was not the usual one of taking fresh blood through 

 the ewes and then serving the produce wdth a pure-bred 

 sheep again, but to pair the half-breds. I read the 

 other day that he has managed to produce thereby a 

 beautifully even flock of an improved and special sort. 

 This history of our bantams would seem to endorse his 

 plan. I shall watch and report further results, when we 

 have tried a variety of combinations. 



We have been transplanting ripstone-pippins and 

 filbert bushes into every wild corner on the hill. What 

 a pull it is to live in a district where the elm, the oak 

 the chestnut, the apple, and the walnut are really native 

 weeds springing up in every hedgerow and on ^very 



