476 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



portable the sewage of our cities, a far greater return would 

 be received. 



British farmers do not generally work with their own hands. 

 There are gardeners, and there are some small farmers, who do 

 all their own work ; but, as a general rule, farmers of a hun- 

 dred acres or more seldom handle a tool. They are all over 

 their premises, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, 

 and very often on a pony so small that they seem practising to 

 ride and go on foot at the same time. They think that the 

 transaction of the general business and the oversight of the 

 labor are enough for one man. It might be asked why they 

 should do more in a country where labor is so plenty. Why 

 should the farmer plough, hoe, and mow, when there are so 

 many who desire that work, even at the small pay there given? 

 If he could get a comfortable living without labor, it would 

 almost seem as if charity would require him to withhold his hand 

 in favor of those who cannot. There are those about him who 

 would call him a niggard if they were to see him doing jobs 

 for which they feel that he ought to pay them. Such is the 

 state of things there. May it long be otherwise here; long 

 may labor be regarded honorable for all; and long may those 

 who labor for wages receive a reasonable compensation. But 

 I have thought that some American farmers run into an oppo- 

 site extreme — do as much work as they would require of a 

 hired man, and then have as much more to do in the way of 

 business, oversight, and nameless matters of economy, which 

 hired men do not trouble themselves about. This may be an 

 error that leans to virtue's side ; but it is an error still; for 

 no man can long pursue such a course without seriously injur- 

 ing himself. 



Under-draining is a point on which British and American 

 practice most differ. Owing to climatic differences, certain 

 qualities of land may lie benefited by draining there, while the 

 same quality could not profitably be drained here. Soils there, 

 from the most clayey, up through the various loams, to the 

 most sandy, are more compact than those which bear the same 

 name among us. There is no doubt that lands from which the 

 surface and the siibsm face water does not pass downward 

 freely need draining. It is hardly possible to over-estimate 



