tions, to
the attention of all readers of the curiosities of agriculture, as
well as to practical men; it is one of those uncommon books which
enters into the humorous side of farming under disadvantages--as, for
instance, prejudiced labourers who have long been employed upon such
work as draining. The author found one of the men, after instructions
to lay the pipes at a depth of three feet, cutting a drain about
eighteen inches deep, _laying in the tiles, one by one, and filling
the earth in over them as he went_. "I've been a-draining this forty
year and more--I ought to know summat about it." The author adds,
"Need I tell you who said this? or give you the whole of the colloquy
to which it furnished the epilogue?" _Talpa_ was published sixty-seven
years ago, but it contains much that might well be taken to heart by
our post-war amateur agricultural reconstructionists.

The tactics of a combination of buyers at a sale of household goods,
with an arrangement for one man to buy everything they want, so as to
avoid competition, is well known as "the knock out." I saw a most
flagrant case at a sale of valuable books at an old Cotswold Manor
House. The books were tied up, quite promiscuously, in parcels of half
a dozen or more, and although the room was crowded with dealers who
had been examining them with interest beforehand, practically only one
bidder appeared, and nearly every lot was sold to him for a few
shillings. I noticed several men taking notes of the prices made, and,
immediately the book sale was finished, they removed them to the lawn,
where they were resold by one of the gang at greatly enhanced prices.
They would, of course, eventually deduct the original cost from the
amount now realized and divide the difference amongst the buyers at
the second sale, _pro rata_, according to the amount of each man's
total purchases.

Cattle-dealers, with a reputation as judges of fat stock at auctions,
have to be very careful not to let inexperienced butchers see them
bidding, because the latter will bid on the strength of the dealer's
estimate of value, arguing that the animal must be worth more to
himself as a butcher, than to the dealer who has to sell again. I have
often watched the crafty ways of such dealers not to give themselves
away in this manner, and their methods of concealing their bids. One I
particularly noticed, whose habit was to stand just below the
auctioneer's rostrum, facing the animal in the ring,