290 NOVEMBER. 



the fruits of the earth are secured, and that, 

 like the bees in their hives, we have not let the 

 summer escape, but have laid up stores of sweet- 

 ness for the time of darkness and dearth. In 

 large farm-houses, many useful avocations may 

 enliven the evening fireside. In some districts, 

 the men mend their own clothes and shoes ; 

 in others, various repairs of smaller implements, 

 as flails, sieves, etc. are done ; and it is now be- 

 come a laudable custom in many superior farms, 

 to encourage reading and other means of mental 

 improvement, which the continual engagements 

 of a rural labourer preclude during the summer. 

 The promotion of this spirit is highly to be 

 desired ; no part of our working population hav- 

 ing been so lamentably deficient in common 

 knowledge as that of farmers' servants. Through 

 the summer they have toiled from morning till 

 night, and from day to day incessantly, and 

 their only intervals of rest, Sundays and winter 

 nights, have been lost in drowsiness. The cot- 

 tager may usefully, by his winter fire, construct 

 bee-hives, nets, mole-traps, bird-cages, etc. ; 

 with any of these employments I have more 

 sympathy than with the last, however. 



Of all men who pursue rural occupations, the 

 bird-catchers, especially the summer bird-catch- 

 ers, they who do not capture birds when they 

 have congregated in winter, when they have 



