2 A FARMER'S YEAR 



to its sweet influence, exercises so deep an effect upon our inner 

 selves —an effect that is good to its last grain. I say ' if we 

 choose,' for there are many in all classes of life who pass their 

 days in the fields and yet never open their minds. Of the inner 

 mystery and meaning of things they see nothing; they do not under- 

 stand that to win her favours Nature is a mistress who must be 

 worshipped with the spirit as well as admired with the eyi.s. Such 

 folk miss much. 



Let the reader of utilitarian mind have patience, however, for 

 there will be a practical side to this book. I am a farmer, and 

 engaged in a desperate endeavour to make my farming pay. 

 Perhaps the chronicle of my struggles may have interest for 

 others so situated ; may at least — if one man's experience in 

 agriculture or anything else is ever of any use to others — teach them 

 what to avoid. To prove that I set out the exact truth, moreover, 

 at the end of this chapter I shall print, amongst other things, a 

 statement of the financial conditions under which my farming is 

 carried on, and of its pecuniary results up to the present time. 



One more word of warning. This is not to be the history of 

 the working of a great farm run by some rich man regardless of 

 expense, with model buildings, model machinery, and the rest. 



On the contrary, here is but a modest place, modestly, if 

 sufficiently, furnished with the necessary buildings, capital, 

 instruments, and labour. Possibly for this very reason the details 

 connected with it may prove of the more value to readers 

 interested in the subject. After all, few people have to do with 

 large and perfectly equipped farms, whereas many — to their sorrow 

 — are weighted with small holdings thrown on their hands in 

 wretched order. How often indeed has a reader been annoyed after 

 purchasing a manual on some sport or amusement in which he is 

 interested — let us say on shooting — to find that, to all appearance, 

 it has been written by a millionaire for millionaires. Very few 

 people can base their estimate of sport on five or eight thousand 

 acres of the best game country in England, or look on loo brace 

 of driven partridge as a small day. Something humbler in scale 



