arable farms there is a certain amount of food, hay, straw, chaff, roots, etc., which must be consumed on the premises for the sake of keeping up the fertility of the land, but I believe that only under very exceptional circumstances can a shilling’s-worth of food and attendance be converted into a shilling’s-worth of meat, so that if in the future the price of corn is to fall back into anything approaching pre-war values, the corn crops, as well as the intermediate green crops, which are only a means for producing corn, must be discontinued, and the land will again become inferior pasture.  Old-fashioned farmers recognized the absence of direct profit in the winter of fattening cattle especially on the produce of arable land, and the saying is well known that, “the man who fattens many bullocks never wants much paper on which to make his will.”

There are few pleasanter sights about farm premises than to see, as the short winter day is drawing to an end, and the twilight is stealing around the ricks and buildings, a nicely sheltered yard full of contented cattle deeply bedded down in clean bright wheat straw, and settling themselves comfortably for the night; and, when one pulls the bed-clothes up to one’s ears, one can go to sleep thinking happily that they too are enjoying a refreshing sleep.  Cattle and sheep can stand severe cold, if they are sheltered from bitter winds and have dry quarters in which to lie; even lambs are none the worse for coming into the world in a snow-covered pasture; and an opened stable window without a draught will often cure a horse of a long-standing chronic cough.  It was pitiful in the early days of the war to see the Indian troops with their mountain batteries at Ashurst, near Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, the mules up to their knees and hocks in black mud, owing to the unfortunate selection of an unsound site for the camp.

A “deadly man for ship”—­one of those expressions not uncommon in Worcestershire, on the lucus a non lucendo principle—­signifies a celebrated sheep breeder; the word “deadly,” in this sense, is akin to the Hampshire and Dorset “terrible,” or, “turrble,” as a term of admiration or the appreciation of excellence; but there are occasions even in the most carefully tended flocks where accidents cannot be anticipated.  Such an event occurred to a Cotswold ram, which after washing was placed in an orchard near my house to dry before shearing.  The ram had an immense fleece on him, nineteen pounds as it afterwards proved, and the wool round the neck was somewhat ragged.  As he lay asleep with his head turned round and muzzle pointing backwards, some little movement caused his head to become entangled in the loose wool, and he was found hanged in his own fleece.