OHAP, IX ] FOOD AND RAIMENT. 323 



cultivation they are very awkward at. The 

 gardens are ploughed in general. An American 

 labourer uses a spade in a very awkward man 

 ner. They poke the earth about as if they had 

 no eyes; and toil and muck themselves half to 

 death to dig as much ground in a day as a 

 Surrey man would dig in about an hour of hard 

 work. Hanking, hedging > they know nothing 

 about. They have no idea of the use of a bill 

 hook, which is so adroitly used in the coppices 

 of Hampshire and Sussex, An ax is their tool, 

 and with that tool, at cutting down trees or 

 cutting them up, they will do ten times as much 

 in a day as any other men that I ever saw. Set 

 one of these men on upon a wood of timber trees, 

 and his slaughter will astonish you. A neigh 

 bour of mine tells a story of an Irishman, who 

 promised he could do any thing, and whom, there 

 fore, to begin with, the employer sent into the 

 wood to cut down a load of wood to burn. He- 

 staid a long while away with the team, and the 

 farmer went to him fearing some accident had 

 happened. " What are you about all this time ?" 

 said the farmer. The man was hacking away 

 at a hickory tree, but had not got it half down; 

 and that was all he had done. An American, 

 black or white, would have had half a dozen 

 trees cut down, cut up into lengths, put upon 

 the carriage, and brought home, in the time. 



