Preparing and Enriching the Soil. 55 



But where trees or brush have grown very thickly, the roots and 

 stumps must be eradicated. The thick growth on the sandy land of 

 Florida is grubbed out at the cost of about $30 per acre, and I know of a 

 gentleman who pays at the rate of $25 per acre in the vicinity of Norfolk, 

 Va. I doubt whether it can be done for less elsewhere. 



In some regions they employ a stump extractor, a rude but strong 

 machine, worked by blocks and pulleys, with oxen as motor power. From 

 the Farmer's Advocate of London, Ont, I learn that an expert with one of 

 these machines, aided by five men and two yoke of oxen, was in the 

 habit of clearing fifty acres annually. 



I have cleaned hedge-rows and stony spots on my place in the follow- 

 ing thorough manner : A man commences with pick and shovel on one 

 side of the land and turns it steadily and completely over by hand to the 

 depth of fourteen to eighteen inches, throwing on the surface behind him 

 all the roots, stumps and stones, and stopping occasionally to blast when 

 the rocks are too large to be pried out. This, of course, is expensive, and 

 cannot be largely indulged in ; but, when accomplished, the work is done 

 for all time, and I have obtained at once by this method some splendid 

 soil, in which the plow sinks to the beam. A drought must be severe, 

 indeed, that can injure such land. 



There is a great difference in men in the performance of this work. I 

 have one who, within a reasonable time, would trench a farm. Indeed, 

 in his power to obey the primal command to " subdue the earth," my 

 man, Abraham, is a hero ; although, I imagine, he scarcely knows what 

 the word means, and would as soon think of himself as a hippopotamus. 

 His fortunes would often seem as dark as himself to those who " take 

 thought for the morrow," and that is saying much, for Abraham is " col- 

 ored " as far as man can be. 



I doubt whether his foresight often reaches further than bed-time, and 

 to that hour he comes with an honest right to rest He is a family man, 

 and has six or seven children, under eight years of age, whom he shelters 

 in a wretched little house, that appears tired of standing up. But to and 

 from this abode Abraham passes daily, with a face as serene as a May 

 morning. In that weary old hovel I am satisfied that he and his swarm- 

 ing little brood have found what no architect can build a home. Thither 

 he carries his diurnal dollar, when he can get it, and on it they all manage 

 to live and grow fat. He loses time occasionally, it is true, through illness, 

 but no such trifling misfortune can induce him, seemingly, to take a long, 

 anxious look into the future. Only once it was last winter have I 

 seen him dismayed by the frowning fates. The doctor thought his wife 



