IN carlyle's country 53 



pies, with which the grain fields will by and by be 

 splashed. Prunella (self-heal), also, is of a deeper 

 purple than with us, and a species of cranesbill, 

 like our wild geranium, is of a much deeper and 

 stronger color. On the other hand, their ripened 

 fruits and foliage of autumn pale their ineffectual 

 colors beside our own. 



Among the farm occupations, that which most 

 took my eye, on this and on other occasions, was 

 the furrowing of the land for turnips and potatoes ; 

 it is done with such absolute precision. It recalled 

 Emerson's statement that the fields in this island 

 look as if finished with a pencil instead of a plow, 

 — a pencil and a ruler in this case, the lines were 

 so straight and so uniform. I asked a farmer at 

 work by the roadside how he managed it. "Ah," 

 said he, "a Scotchman's head is level." Both 

 here and in England, plowing is studied like a fine 

 art; they have plowing matches, and offer prizes 

 ■for the best furrow. In planting both potatoes and 

 turnips the ground is treated alike, grubbed, plowed, 

 cross-plowed, crushed, harrowed, chain-harrowed, 

 and rolled. Every sod and tuft of uprooted grass 

 is carefully picked up by women and boys, and 

 burned or carted away; leaving the surface of the 

 ground like a clean sheet of paper, upon which the 

 plowman is now to inscribe his perfect lines. The 

 plow is drawn by two horses; it is a long, heavy 

 tool, with double mould-boards, and throws the 

 earth each way. In opening the first furrow the 

 plowman is guided by stakes; having got this one 



