370 



THE GENEirEE FARMEE, 



a shake of the head. "He spends too much time 

 over them papers and books of his'n. He's a leetle 

 mite above farmin', in my opinion." 



" Them's my sentiments," responded Grummet. 

 "I tell you, Eben, a man that tliinks to make a liv- 

 in' on a farm in this country, has got to worl- for 

 it." 



At this juncture, Sam Bancroft came past. He 

 was another old native of the district. 



" We was just talkin' about young Walton," said 

 Sawyer, 



" I've just come from there." replied Sam. 

 " He's been borin' me to sign for a paper ; but he 

 couldn't come it!" 



" Ha, ha ! — so he bored us. He's gettin' a leetle 

 too high for a farmer." 



"He's rippin' his barn-floor up!" said Bancroft. 

 "Rippin' the floor up !" repeated Grummet. 

 " Why, Mr. Amsden had the whole floor put down 

 new only three years ago." 



"The stable floor, I mean," pursued Bancroft. 

 " He's got a carpenter up from the village, and his 

 two hired men are helpin'." 



" Whew ! I opine he'll make a farmer !" 

 And so they all opined — with a reservation. In 

 short, there was something highly ridiculous in the 

 thought of a man thinking to be a farmer and a stu- 

 dent at the same time ; and all sorts of jests were 

 discharged over it. 



John Walton was a young man. — some five-and- 

 twenty ; and though he had been bom in the neigh- 

 borhood, yet much of his life had been spent in 

 other portions of the country His parents both 

 died when he was quite young, and his father's 

 farm passed into the hands of a Mr. Amsden. But 

 now John had married, and he meant to be a farm- 

 er; and his thoughts naturally turned to the old 

 homestead. He found Amsden willing to sell, and 

 he bought — paying five hundred pounds down, and 

 giving a note and mortgage for five hundred, which 

 had been cashed by Mr. Piddon. 



This farming district was upon a broad ridge of 

 land, which had been cleared for a great many 

 years ; and though they were the handsomest and 

 smoothest-looking farms in the parish, yet they 

 were by no means the best. The summit of the 

 ridge was crowned by a ledge of granite, and the 

 soil, over the whole broad swell, was more or less 

 wet and cold. This was particularly the case with 

 John Walton's farm, some portions of it being 

 wholly unfit for cultivation. There was one field 

 of over twenty acres which was never fit for plow- 

 ing. The soil was so wet and heavy that it never 

 had been worked to any advantage ; yet there was 

 some good land upon it, and Mr. Amsden had gained 

 fair crops while he lived there. 



Ben Grummet had a curiosity to see what was 

 going on in Walton's barn, so he dropped in there. 

 He found that the whole of the floor, where the 

 cattle stood, had been torn up, and that they were 

 digging a wide, deep trench, the whole length of 

 the tie-up. 



"What's all this for?" asked Ben. 

 "Why," returned Walton, who was busy in su- 

 perintending the work, and also in working him- 

 self, " I am having a placed fixed here for making 

 manure. I mean to fill this trench up with good 

 muck, and thus save the liquids which have here- 

 tofore been lost. I think, by proper management, 



I can get full double the quantity of manure which 

 others have got on this place." 



" Do ye ?" said Grummet, sarcastically. 

 " Yes," resumed the young man. " It is a fact 

 that the liquid manures, could they be saved, would 

 fully equal the solids, both in bulk and value ; and 

 when combined with well-rotted muck, and some 

 other articles which shall take up and retain all the 

 more volatile parts, I feel sure that they will aflbrd 

 more fertilizing powers and properties than the 

 solid manures can." 



"You don't say so! Where d'ye larn all that?" 

 " Partly from reading, and partly from observa- 

 tion," answered John, sm.iling at his good neighbor's 

 open sarcasm. 



"I don't s'pose it costs anything to do all this?" 

 " Oh, yes, it will cost me considerable before I 

 get through." 



"Yes: I should think 'twould." 

 "I say!" he cried, as he met Sawyer shortly af- 

 terward. "John Walton's about as nigh bein' cra- 

 zy as a man can be!" 

 "Eh?— crazy, Ben?" 



" Oh, he's got his head full of all sorts of non- 

 sense. He's got his stable floor all torn away, and 

 a trench dug there big enough to hold mor'n twenty 

 cart-loads of dirt." 



" Bet what in natur's he goin' to do ?" 

 "Why, he's goin' to save the liquids, as he calls 

 'em ! And he's goin' to put in somethin' to take 

 up the — the — vol — voluntary parts." 



" Voluntary parts ? Wliat's them, Ben ?" 

 "It was vol somethin'. But I don't know. I 

 wouldn't ask him. I s'pose he just used the out- 

 landish word so's to get me to ask him what it 

 meant — an' then he'd show off his larnin'. But I 

 wasn't so green." 



" I wonder if he thinks he's a comin' here to larn 

 us old farmers how to work ?" said Sawyer, rather 

 indignantly. 



" He thinks so," returned Grummet. 

 "Then he'll find out his mistake," added the 

 other. " You mark my words, Ben. He'll be flat 

 on his back afore two years is out!" 



And these were not the only ones who looked 

 for the same thing. The idea of a man's coining 

 in there with any such new-fangled notions, was 

 absurd. 



Autumn came, and after John Walton had mowed 

 over his twenty-acre field — some of his coldest and 

 stiftest land — getting hardly hay enough to pay for 

 the labor, he set men at work digging deep trenches 

 all over it. He had two dug lengthwise, running 

 up and down the slope; and then he dug quite a 

 number running across these. They were quite 

 deep and broad, and into them he tumbled nearly 

 all the stones that could be found in the fields. 



"A pooty expensive way of gettin' rid o' rocks," 

 remarked Grummet. 



" It's a better place for them than on the surface, 

 isn't it?" returned Walton, with a smile. 



" Perhaps. But what on earth are ye doin' it 

 for?" 



" Why, I'm going to see if under-draining won't 

 improve the land." 



^^Under-draining ! What's that?" 

 "It is simply drawing off the water from the 

 surface. This land is cold and wet : but if I can get 

 , the water to dram off among these rocks, the sun 



