TAKING REINS IN HAND 



different from American need, in all northern 

 latitudes. The British farmer can graze his 

 turnips into January; and I have seen a pretty 

 herd of Devon cows cropping a fair bite of 

 grass, under the lee of the Devon Tors, into 

 February. We, on the contrary, have need to 

 store forage for at least six months in the year. 

 Hay begins to go out of the bays with the 

 first of November at the latest, and there is 

 rarely a good bite upon the pastures until the 

 tenth of May. For this reason there is re- 

 quired a great breadth of barn room. 



The high cost of labor, too, forbids that dis- 

 tribution of the farm offices over a considerable 

 area of surface, which is characteristic of the 

 British steading. The tall buildings, which are 

 just now so much in vogue with enterprising 

 American farmers, situated by preference upon 

 swiftly sloping land, and giving an upper floor 

 for forage, a second and lower one for granary 

 and cattle, and a third for manure pit, have 

 been suggested and commended chiefly for 

 their great economy of labor; one man easily 

 caring for a herd, under these conditions of 

 lodgment, which upon the old system would de- 

 mand two or three. 



Machinery, too, which must presently come 

 to do most of the indoor work upon a well- 



III 



