64 Old Bays on the Farm 



THE CLASSIC AVONS 



The Avons of Old England — there are three 

 rivers of that name in the Old Land — have been 

 "written about and, particularly, the Warwickshire 

 Avon's beauties have been extolled. One of 

 America's foremost painters, Edwin A. Abbey, 

 who spent most of his life in England, painted 

 the pictures for a handsome volume on this fa- 

 mous stream. I'm familiar with that book and 

 its illustrations, but far, far dearer to me are 

 memory's pictures of our own little Canadian 

 Avon along the banks of which I fondly lingered 

 as a barefoot boy. 



I have explored some of the small streams that 

 empty into the Avon and have found the remains 

 of beaver dams. I know of several still in wood- 

 land places where the hydraulic engineering work 

 of the beaver may still be seen in outline — a rain- 

 bow shaped mound running across the water- 

 course. But : 



"The beaver builds no longer by those streams, 

 But far away, in waters whose blue surface 

 Ne'er gave back the white man's face, 

 He rears his little Venice." 



LET THE BOYS FISH 



As I stated in the preface to this book, I did 

 not set out with the intention of giving advice to 

 the farming man. Might I be permitted for a mo- 



