260 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FAKM. 



Economy of things, as the most cautious sagacity and 

 profoundest experience of advanced life. " There is 

 that scattereth and yet increaseth : " and He who 

 appointed Life as an advancing experience, appoint- 

 ed every part of it to accomplish and vindicate its 

 appropriate phase and character. 



So now I feel it, whether I look back over the 

 enterprise, labor and amusement of years gone by, 

 or whether I look over the comparatively reclaimed 

 acres and shrub-embosomed homestead of the once 

 dreary spot it was my privilege to find " thrown upon 

 my hands" at a moment when the drearier waste 

 within defied the outer landscape. Could the scene 

 be presented to me again, with the aspect it once 

 wore, I should hardly, even with the bought economy 

 of experience, have the boldness to attack it ; but if 

 compelled to do so by duty or necessity, the only 

 difference in my course would be a broader and 

 more comprehensive plan, founded upon a deeper 

 reliance on the instincts and judgment which the 

 chilling timidity and discouraging language of sur- 

 rounding practice casts, in every district, across the 

 path of the improving owner. 



Whence this timidity and discouragement? 



"With the attempt to answer this important ques- 

 tion my task shall be concluded ; and the personal 



