CHAPTER VI. 



FIELD -LABOURERS 



THE field-labourers, whose work we are going first to 

 look at, are somewhat rough in their ways, it must be 

 confessed, and not such as the farmer generally cares 

 to see at work upon his land. For when he has taken 

 possession of the beds of soft earth ready prepared for 

 him, his ploughs and harrows come in very usefully, 

 and he is of opinion that he can manage the tillage of 

 his fields himself. 



Nature, however, has no steel ploughs, and her fields 

 must be tilled by other means, for they need it as well 

 as the farmer's. And her labourers work in all parts 

 of the farm, giving man a vast amount of help, for 

 which he is often not as grateful as he might be, for he 

 and they do not at present understand one another ; 

 and though he may tame a lion he cannot control a 

 worm. 



But though they may often be troublesome where 

 man has taken possession, it is to the long-continued 

 services of some of these natural labourers that he 

 owes much of the fruitfulness of some of his richest, 

 lands. 



The wonderful fertility of the lands in Manitoba 



