3S4 Mr. Barker’s Register , &c. 
was so much rain at the beginning and end of the year, and at 
the middle of it, in July, that there was a very great quantity 
upon the whole. The crop of hay was small, but well got ; 
the wheat remarkably good, and barley proved better than 
was expected ; other sorts of grain were moderate, and, in ge- 
neral, harvest was well got. 
The latter part of summer and the autumn were very fine and 
pleasant, and sometimes hot ; generally dry, so as rather tend- 
ing to burn, the beginning of October ; but before the middle 
it began to be wetter, and after the middle more stormy, and 
grew colder, with frosty mornings, cutting off the late flowers ; 
and it continued wet the rest of October, and all November, 
and storm} in November and December ; which last month 
was a very disagreeable one, for storms, snow, and frost, and 
sometimes all at once ; and that almost the whole month, for 
a snow and severe frost, which began the third, though with 
several thawing days, was hardly quite gone by the end of 
the year : there was but little of this frost and snow in the 
south of England. 
Of milking Ewes. 
We find in the Greek and Roman writers, and also by some 
passages in the Bible, that it was the custom, in former times, 
to milk ewes as well as cows ; and, perhaps, it may better be 
done in those hotter climates than in England ; yet I find it 
spoken of as having been practised in this island many years 
ago. Tusser, who lived in Suffolk, and was a young man in 
Edward the Vltffs time (see his life at the end of his work), 
mentions it as used in his time, and he approved of doing 
