152 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



his opinion, and gives it freely enough. The result 

 is generally a mongrel compromise between them 

 all. No one voice no one plan is predominant, 

 and by the time the whole outlay is expended, the 

 job is half a job, and the ship is spoilt for a ha'p'orth 

 of tar and an ounce of oakum. The extreme of cold, 

 as well as the extreme of heat, will leave a blister 

 on the fingers.* 



Five months F iged away and the glorious 



spring of that' |en hundred and thirty odd, 

 afore dated with sucli ^difying minuteness, and now 

 hanging up like a cobweb in some neglected passage 



* This could not be better said at least to such as have 

 /he requisite amount of capital to make a farm what it should 

 be at the commencement. Such, however, is seldom the case 

 with the farmer of this country. The want of capital to be- 

 gin with is their first misfortune, and, becoming accustomed 

 to it, this deficiency is too apt to follow them through life. 

 If the farmer become ultimately successful, long-continued 

 habit makes him penurious in all that relates to permanent 

 outlay upon his farm, and ho is quite too prone to invest his 

 surplus savings in objects foreign, if not antagonist to his 

 legitimate occupation, rather than to sink them, as he con- 

 eiders it, in permanent improvements to his estate, because 

 their immediate effect is not apparent. The increased value 

 of land amid a dense population, and an enlightened system 

 of cultivation, may, after a time, cure the difficulty. ED. 



