London to John O* Groat's. 21 



fifty pounds, or two hundred and fifty dollars, to enclose 

 an acre entirely with this kind of hurdling. Still, Mr. 

 Mechi would doubtless be able to show that this large 

 expenditure is a good investment, and pays well in the 

 long run. The folding of sheep for twenty-four or 

 forty-eight hours on small patches of clover, trefoil, 

 or turnips, is a very important department of English 

 farming, both for fattening them for the market and 

 for putting the land in better heart than any other 

 fertilising process could effect. Now, a man with this 

 iron fencing on wheels must be able to make in two 

 hours an enclosure that would cost him a day or more 

 of busy labor with the old wooden hurdles. 



On the whole, a practical farmer, who has no other 

 source of income than the single occupation of agricul- 

 ture, would be likely to ask, what is the realised value 

 of Alderman Mechi's operations to the common grain 

 and stock-growers of the world? They have excited 

 more attention or curiosity than any other experiments 

 of the present day ; but what is the real resume of their 

 results ? "What new principles has he laid down ; what 

 new economy has he reduced to a science that may be 

 profitably utilised by the million who get their living 

 by farming ? What has he actually done that anybody 

 else has adopted or imitated to any tangible advan- 

 tage ? These are important questions ; and this is the 



