138 RUTA BAGA CULTURE. [PART I. 



86. But, at any rate, what can be said for a 

 man that thinks too much of such a piece of 

 labour? The earth is extremely grateful ; but 

 it must and will have something to be grateful 

 for. As far as my little experience has enabled 

 me to speak, I find no want of willingness to 

 learn in any of the American workmen. Ours, 

 in England, are apt to be very obstinate, espe 

 cially if getting a little old. They do not like 

 to be taught any thing. They say, and they 

 think, that what their fathers did was best. To 

 tell them, that it was your affair, and not theirs, 

 is nothing. To tell them, that the loss, if any, 

 will fall upon you, and not upon them, has very 

 little weight. They argue, that, they being the 

 real doers, ought to be the best judges of the 

 mode of doing. And, indeed, in most cases, they 

 are, and go about this work with wonderful 

 skill and judgment. But, then, it is so difficult 

 to induce them cordially to do any thing new, 

 or any old thing in a new way; and the abler 

 they are as workmen, the more untractable they 

 are, and the more difficult to be persuaded, 

 that any one knows any thing, relating to farm 

 ing affairs, better than they do. It was this 

 difficulty that made me resort to the employ 

 ment of young women in the most important 

 part of my farming, the providing of immense 

 quantities of cattle-food. But, J do not find 

 this difficulty here, where no workmen are ob- 



