256 ECHOES CF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



engine I hired from the man who threshed my corn, 

 giving him ;^ I a day for the h're ; my ploughman rode 

 on the cultivator, and to liim I gave, in addition to his 

 full weekly wage, ^^d. an acre on all he cultivated, and, as 

 he did about five acres a day, he earned an extra six 

 shillings a week ; the anchor men, and all others em- 

 ployed at that work, also had so much an acre, the 

 result being that they worked as long in the evenings as 

 it was possible to see, and started as early as they could 

 be about in the morning ; if the work was scamped, it 

 was my fault. When the mowing-machine was brought 

 out, I was the first in the county of Bucks to purchase 

 and use one ; it was an American machine, one of 

 Walter Wood's, a really good machine, although it 

 would be laughed at now, so great, since that time, have 

 been the improvements in agricultural implements. 

 When I determined on purchasing this machine I sent 

 for my carter, who had hitherto been the head of a gang 

 of five mowers, and who not only mowed mine, but also 

 the crops of my neighbours, and found on inquiry that 

 they could, by extremely hard labour, earn about 30^". 

 a week in haytime, they finding their own beer. I then 

 broke the ice, and told him I was going to give 

 him a carriage and pair of horses to drive, and that for 

 the future he would earn as much as a coachman as he 

 was earning then by dragging himself to pieces by 

 mowing ; he could not understand w^hat I meant, but I 

 told him to prepare a new set of leather reins, and to 

 have ready a pair of his most active horses. Then, one 

 day, Mr. Cranston, of the firm of Walter Wood and Co., 

 arrived with the mower, the horses were harnessed to it, 



