202 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



single to quick profit; with a prejudice against "high farming," 

 indeed, because it is advised by the free-traders as a remedy 

 for low prices. He declared no money was to be made by farm- 

 ing : do his best, he could not pay his rent and leave himself a 

 profit under the present prices. He had been holding on to his 

 wheat for three years in hopes of a rise, but now despaired of it, 

 except the protective policy was returned to. 



There was a coal mine and lime-kiln within the boundary of 

 the farm, and a tram-road from it to the railroad about two miles 

 distant. A tram-road is a narrow track of wooden rails, on which 

 cars are moved by stationary power or horses. On extensive 

 farms they might be advantageously made use of. A road run- 

 ning through the barns and out-buildings of a farmstead, on which 

 straw, feed, dung, etc., could be easily moved by hand, would 

 cost but little, and often afford a great saving of labor. 



The fences were all of hawthorn, low and close-trimmed. 



The farm servants had from $65 to $75 a year and their 

 board. (The very next day a man told me he paid just half 

 these sums.) Day-laborers from $2 to $2.50 a week (fair 

 weather) and board themselves. A boy just over fourteen years 

 old (under which age it is by law forbidden) told me he worked 

 in the coal mines for sixteen cents a day. 



