THOROUGH TILLAGE. 101 



these walls ; weasels, rats and other destructive ani- 

 mals, found protection and impunity therein ; a 

 wide belt on either side was made useless or worse ; 

 while Plowing was rendered laborious, difficult, and 

 inefficient, by the necessity of turning after every 

 few hundred steps. We are growing slowly wiser, 

 and burying a part of these walls, or building them 

 into concrete barns or other useful structures; but 

 they are still far too plentiful, and need to be dealt 

 with more sternly. O squatter on a wide prairie, on 

 the bleak Plains, or in 'a broad Pacific valley, where 

 wood must be hauled for miles and loose stone are 

 rarely visible, thank God for the benignant dispensa- 

 tion which has precluded you from half spoiling your 

 farm by a multiplicity of obstructing, deforming 

 fences, and so left its soil free and open to be every- 

 where pervaded, loosened, permeated, by the reno- 

 vating Plow ! 



