MAY. 141 



RURAL OCCUPATIONS. 



Cattle are turned out to pasture as soon as there 

 is a sufficiency of grass, which is not till towards 

 the end of the month. The spring crops being 

 sown, the great business of the farmer is now on 

 his fallows. The farmyard is cleared of manure ; 

 turf is pared and burnt. Cow-cabbage and pota- 

 toes are planted, water-meadows are irrigated to en- 

 courage the growth of the hay-crop ; young quick- 

 set hedges are cleared of weeds ; hop plantations 

 require cleaning, and other attentions. Now too, as 

 the sap begins to flow freely, trees are barked and 

 felled, as the larch, alder, but especially the oak. 

 There is much of the picturesque in the sight of the 

 woodmen at work at alt times : and although I re- 

 gret to see the destruction of timber, yet a large 

 tree with all its branches prostrate on the ground is 

 a fine sight ; the clear, golden-coloured chips scat- 

 tered about, and a fresh sylvan odour breathing 

 from the wounded boughs, and the brown cylindri- 

 cal shells of bark ranged in pyramidal rows to dry. 

 It is a beautiful but melancholy object, a noble oak 

 stripped of its bark just as all its "budding honours" 

 are become "thick upon it;" and felled to the 

 ground, or left a blasted skeleton in the midst of 

 summer greenness. 



Abundance of grass now plunges the housewife 

 into all the cares and nice clean processes of the 

 dairy, skimming, churning, and cheese-making. The 



