138 Wild Life ina Southern County. 
place in the life of the people. New festivals, and of 
a different character, have sprung up. . 
The most important of these is the annual auction 
on the farm: the system of selling by auction which 
has become so widely diffused has, indeed, quite re- 
volutionised agriculture in many ways. Where the 
farm is celebrated for a special breed of sheep, the 
great event of the year is the annual auction at home 
of ram lambs. Where the farm is famous for cattle, 
the chief occasion is the yearly sale of young short- 
horns. And recently, since steam plough and arti- 
ficial manure and general high pressure have been 
introduced, many large arable farmers sell their corn 
crops standing. The purchaser pays a certain price 
‘for the wheat as it grows, reaps it when ripe, and 
‘makes what profit he can. 
In either case the auctioneer is called in, a dinner 
is prepared, and everybody who likes to come is 
welcome. If there happens to be a great barn near 
the homestead it is usually used for the dinner. The 
marquee has yet to be invented which will keep 
out a thunderstorm—that common interruption of 
country meetings—like an old barn. But barns are 
not always available, and a tent is then essential. 
Though the spot may be lonely and several miles 
from a town or station, a large number of persons 
are sure to be there; and if it is an auction of 
sheep or cattle with a pedigree, many of them will be 
found to have come from the other end of the king- 
