The Fast Agricultural Year. 
229 
tlieni cleaned. Softer turnips, being swept ofl" by flea, were very late and 
bianky; and for the first time in my lite 1 had to sow turnips in July. In 
line, you cannot find any one that ever saw so bad a season for the jiropor fal- 
lowing of heavy land. 
The lesson to be drawn from all this, and [)ondered durin;^ the remaining 
years of current leases and lifetimes, is that laud was taken five or ten years 
ago at much too high rents, which lew landlords will abate — and that on high 
principle ! 
James Thomson, 
No one, I am sure, will regret that he has been taken by the 
above reports outside the limits of what may be considered the 
strict field of the Society's operations. Scottish experience has 
many good lessons for English agriculturists ; and the letters of 
Mr. George Brown, jun., of Caithness, and Mr. James Thomson 
of Berwickshire, will be read with interest not only in the up- 
land cultivated districts of many northern English counties 
wherever circumstances resemble theirs, but wherever lessons in 
energetic harvest-work, liberal winter management of stock, and 
choice of hardy breeds and sorts, whether of plants or animals, 
are needed ; as indeed they have been needed everywhere in the 
United Kingdom during the past two years. 
The following are some of the letters of my English corre- 
spondents : — 
Northumberland. — Houndalee, Acklington . 
1. Live-stock. — With the exception of calves, my stock could not ^wssibly 
have been healthier than they were during the winter and sprins; of 1879. 
I keep a flying stock of half-bred Leicester and Cheviot ewes, and although 
they lost a good deal of condition during the very severe weather, yet at 
lambing-time they did well, having a fair average crop of healthy lambs and 
plenty of milk. Their feed through the storm was bean-straw, and chaff as 
made by the thresher — not chopped — and one truss of hay to about sixty 
ewes, with a half-pint of oats apiece twice a-day. About a month before 
lambing I give turnips, about as many as they can eat, aud continue them as 
long as I can. The hoggs get much the same feed as ewes, only not exceeding 
one half-pint of oats per day, and no turnips. Of course they are not intended to 
get fat before September ; but had it been a dec-nt season since May, most of 
them would have been fat by July. I bring up all my own cattle, rearing 
about fifty calves a year, taking care to buy only well-bred ones, which at 
present are very dear, from oOs. to 60s. each. I never knew so much sick- 
ness as there has been among young calves since last autumn. I mean calves 
from birth to about six weeks old. It must have been caused by the severe 
weather. 1 have tried many remedies, but have not found any trustworthy 
cure. The older animals — from one to two years old — have been remarkably 
healthy, did well in the yards, and continued thriving in the field, although 
slowly, owing no doubt to the wet state of the grass and the cold weather. 
Horses needed a good deal of corn to keep them up to their work. The grass 
seemed to do them no good ; and it would be impossible for them to do much 
work on this strong clay without a lot of dry food. 
2. Tillage operations. — I may state that nearly the whole of my farm, with 
the exception of 60 or 70 acres, is the strongest possible clay, thoroughly 
