16 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



paved, and the staircases made of stone. A fence of iron, afford 

 ing a sufficient protection against cattle, is made here at a less 

 expense than many wooden fences are made with us. 



VI. GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. 



I may be allowed to put down marks of difference in the 

 general appearance of the country, as compared with my own, 

 as they strike my attention. I need not say that England is 

 entirely devoid of a feature which strongly marks the newly- 

 cleared parts of my own country, arid that is the stumps of trees, 

 which have been cut down, or the large, naked, and dead stand 

 ing skeletons of trees, which have been girdled, that the pioneer, 

 in subduing the wilderness, might have a chance of getting bread 

 for himself and his family, while he was endeavoring to tame the 

 wildness of nature and to convert the forest into a fruitful field. 

 England exhibits, of course, nothing of this, for the days of its 

 youth have long since passed, and its agriculture reckons its pa 

 triarchal centuries. But there is another thing remarkable : the 

 cultivated fields are entirely free from rocks and stones, excepting 

 the limestone and flint pebbles in the chalk formations. In the 

 clay soils and on the peaty moors, they, of course, are not to be 

 looked for ; but. where even they once existed, they have been 

 entirely removed or buried, and there is nothing to interrupt or 

 impede the progress of the plough. This is not so generally the 

 case in my own country as is to be desired. It is, indeed, an 

 affair of very difficult accomplishment in many cases, where, in a 

 granitic region for example, the stones are often within stepping 

 distance of each other all over a farm, and where every fresh 

 ploughing seems to turn up a fresh crop of stones. On the 

 other hand, there are too many cases where, with equal ad 

 vantage to the purse as pleasure to the eye, such unsightly rub 

 bish might be removed or buried ; yet there are fields, within 

 my own knowledge, where I may say, with confidence, the 

 same piles of stones which were collected for removal, full 

 half a century ago, retain their original position until this 

 day ; the plough, whenever they are broken up, being always 



