256 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



lines, winces, floats, hooks, nuts, plummets, bailing needles, disgorgers, cleaning 

 ring, split shot, pliers for putting them on line, caps for float, kettle for bait, India 

 rubber, thumb winder, shoemaker's wax, bit of soft leather, and pocket-book of fish- 

 ing tackle, with reel to hold lines, and his hooks ' of sizes ;' and then, as for cook- 

 ing the fish on the shore, when it is caught, he has few rivals, especially in the 

 chowder line. But, returning to his penchant for Agriculture, and talking of fish, 

 considering how much he must have been engrossed in England in seeing and be- 

 ing seen by the " big fish " of that wonderful nation, it is wonderful to those with 

 whom that homely subject is a favorite topic of inquiry, how familiar he had 

 managed to make himself with the great branches of her Agriculture, and es^ 

 pecially with all the modern inventions and resources to which recourse has been 

 had, of late years, for the prodigious improvements in that great art, and by 

 which they have been enabled, until now, to keep pace with their prodigious in- 

 crease of population. On these leading points in the progress of agricultural in- 

 dustry he discourses not so much in cjsetail as he does philosophically. But that 

 every one knows to be the character of his mind. He likes to reach after the 

 bottom of things ! 



His guests, on their arrival within his gates, are shown, after what we are told 

 is the English fashion — and what we are sure must be everywhere a good one — 

 at once to their apartments, which are their oicn for the nonce ; and are at once 

 and very quietly made to feel " at home." If, after that, from day to day, incli- 

 nation does not invite, or the weather forbids, them to go abroad, through garden 

 or grounds, why there is the delightful resource of a noble library, teeming with 

 choicest editions of works in all the departments of literature, and all so well and 

 beautifully printed and bound as that the very handling is a luxury. 



We know very well that, in alluding thus to a gentleman's personal and do- 

 mestic habits in retirement, we rather invade a sanctuary that should be invio- 

 late ; still it is one of the penalties to which extraordinary men have to submit, 

 and it may even be not without its moral bearing, should they happen to learn 

 that the public will be curious about their incomings and their outgoings. 



We had entertained some hope of hearing from a friend of Mr. W., yclept Jo. 

 Sykes, something like a systematic account of the economy and management 

 practiced at Marshfield. but fear he has been lost in the fog or the mountains. 



Mr. W.'s stables are so peculiarly constructed that, while all the liquid manure 

 passes freely through, to be absorbed by the compost below, the floors are always 

 dry, and moreover admit of being easily taken up and replaced, as occasion may 

 require. 



A large proportion of the estate, as its name imports, consists of salt marsh, 

 yielding heavy crops of coarsish hay, used for cattle, and forming a great resource 

 for making manure. Under some immemorial custom that, being curious, we 

 would like, if we could, to explain, the surrounding farmers, even from a great 

 distance, drive down to this immense salt meadow, and, without a word to any 

 one, fall to cutting and curing hay, and, when they have finished, leave one-half 

 stacked on the ground for the proprietor, and bear ofl' the other without let or 

 hindrance. Whether this right or privilege is inheritable, or under what limita- 

 tions and restrictions they enjoy it, we know not. It seems to be an antiquated 

 right or custom, handed down, along with their blue stockings and big buckles, 

 as we guess, from the days of the Puritans. We sometimes almost wish that 

 everything else had remained as unchangeable, except that o{ riding on bulls, as 

 old John Alden rode to that same Cape to be married, on one of the descendants 



(544) 



