w all
about farming, as about nearly everything else, and a year on a farm
would illustrate many of his allusions which the ordinary reader finds
somewhat cryptic; anyone who has seen the terrified stampede of cattle
with their tails erect when attacked by the gad-fly, will recognize
the force of the simile. The gad-fly pierces the skin of the animal,
laying its eggs beneath, just as the ichneumon makes use of a
caterpillar to provide a host for its progeny. No doubt the operation
is a painful one, but the caterpillar may survive, even into its
chrysalis stage, and the cow in due time is relieved, after an
uncomfortable experience, by the exit of the maggot or fly.

A branch of the Roman road, Ryknield Street, commonly called Buckle
Street, leaving the former near Bidford-on-Avon and running over the
Cotswolds via Weston Subedge, was known in former times as Buggilde or
Buggeld Street, derived possibly from the Latin _buculus_, a young
bullock. No doubt vast herds of cattle traversed the road from the
vale to the hills, or vice versa, according to the abundance of keep
and the time of year. Similar roads in Dorset and Wiltshire are still
known as "ox droves," and in the former county, at least, both young
heifers and bullocks are known as "bullicks."

Cattle are subject to all manner of disorders which, though puzzling
to the owner to diagnose, are not as a rule beyond the skill of a good
veterinary surgeon to alleviate; but there are also accidents which
are much more annoying, being impossible to foresee. I had occasional
losses from the latter causes: once in the night when a cow was thrown
on her back into a deep brick manger; and once when a small piece of
sacking, part of a decorticated cotton-cake bag, was somehow mixed in
with the food, and induced internal inflammation.

It is a difficult matter for a farmer when selling fat cattle direct
to the butcher, to compete with him in a correct estimate of the
weight, and it is therefore advisable to sell at a price per pound of
the dead weight when dressed; this, however, is not always feasible,
and a very close estimate can be arrived at by measurement of the
girth and length of the live animal, following rules laid down in the
handbooks on the subject of fat stock. It is a mistake to suppose that
the fattening of stock is a profitable undertaking _per se_. On all
arable farms there is a certain amount of food, hay, straw, chaff,
roots, etc., which must be consume