352 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



supplied. Food and wages and all expenses that 

 do not definitely increase the value of capital in 

 land, stock, and working plant, ought to be supplied 

 through annual sales of stock and dairy produce. 

 It was too late to establish those lines, more especially 

 as the income I drew from a share in a business- 

 concern in London had already shrunk considerably 

 since my absence from England. But one should 

 not only insure against the loss of one's wheat crop 

 by making, but by saving. I knew that in future 

 years I could save on wages, and determined to hire 

 expert labour for seeding and harvest seasons and 

 for a certain amount of ploughing, but to do all 

 cultivation myself. Discing and harrowing, mowing 

 and raking are easy work ; one drives the whole 

 time, and except that in mowing the vibration of 

 the mower is occasionally jarring to the nerves of 

 some people, one can return from a day's work on 

 either of these implements with energy practically 

 untaxed. A hired man and woman constitute a 

 luxury to be recommended to all those who can 

 afford it. Married couples are usually seekers of 

 home and capital ; the average hired man seeks 

 wages, and some of them bring more work into the 

 house than they succeed in putting on to the land. 

 The woman who can hitch up her team and go 

 quietly off to the cultivation of her land not only 

 saves her purse the expenditure of the average wage 

 of five shillings a day plus board, but she saves on 

 herself she conserves her energy. 



The distribution of the sum left at my disposal 

 required thought and care. It was hopeless even 

 to think of the land payment of a thousand dollars, 

 and even its interest was a matter of almost painful 



