MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



mouldering masses of decayed vegetable mat- 

 ter, of old conchologic deposits, and ferru- 

 ginous wreck; all this clearance being not so 

 much agricultural employment, as hygienic. 

 There seems to have been a mania with the 

 old New England householders, in the coun- 

 try, for multiplying enclosures, — front yards, 

 back yards, south and north yards, — all with 

 their palings and gates, which grow shaky 

 with years, and give cover to rank and worth- 

 less vegetation in corners that no cultivation 

 can reach. Of this multitude of palings I 

 made short work: good taste, economy, and 

 all rules of good tillage, unite in favor of the 

 fewest possible enclosures, and confirm the 

 wisdom of making the palings for such as are 

 necessary, as simple as their office of defence 

 will allow. 



So it happened under my ruling that the 

 little terrace yard of the front lost its identity, 

 and was merged in the yard to the north, — 

 with the little bewildered garden to the south, 

 — with the straggling peach orchard in the 

 rear; and all these merged again, by the re- 

 moval of a tattling wall, with the valley pas- 

 ture that lay southward, where now clumps 

 of evergreen, and azaleas, and lilacs crown 

 the little swells, and hide the obtrusive angles 



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