d 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. A