Eitlogiiim on TFilliam West. 149 



The business of farming may be said to have been 

 new to Mr. West, for although he had a general idea 

 of the common operations of husbandry, yet he must 

 have been very deficient with respect to the various 

 minor details upon which so much of the success and 

 profit of a farm depend. The land he bought was al- 

 most a common : there being scarcely a fence of 

 strength sufficient to keep out whatever animal chose 

 to walk over his fields and they were covered with 

 briars and weeds of every kind. In these respects his 

 farm was not singular. All the agricultural operations 

 of the district were the reverse of what they ought to 

 have been, and of what they now are. — There is still 

 much room for improvement. 



After fencing his land, by substantial inclosures, and 

 clearing it of weeds, briars, and wild hedge-rows, he 

 looked around for information, as to the best mode of 

 conducting his farm. He saw cattle half starved in 

 winter for want of food, and pinched with cold from 

 deficient shelter, and but poorly fed even in summer. 

 Grass was the result of the spontaneous, though scanty 

 production of the soil after the crop of grain was taken 

 off, or in a few cases, of natural rough meadow, or wa- 

 tered fields, but as the first of those resources was not 

 in the power of all, and as the latter, if within their 

 command, was neglected from indolence, or ignorance 

 of the benefit to be derived from it, or of the method 

 of effecting the improvement, the provision of hay was 

 necessarily extremely poor : the consequence was, that 

 the stock kept was small in number, or if the vanity of 

 sliewing a large stock infected the farmer, they were of 

 course Uut half nourished. In either case, manure was 



