'EARTH '-STOPPING. 45 



were trodden by bipeds and quadrupeds with about 

 equal perception of their plan and bearing. Who 

 would be without an accurate Map of his farm, who 

 once knew the cumulative triumphs that it brings of 

 skill and headcraft, as lavislily accorded in the end, 

 as denied in the outset, by the gregarious juries who 

 sit in judgment on his acts? 



Down went fence after fence ! each with precisely 

 the same prologue and epilogue of blame and praise : 

 for all the successful issues in the world never stop 

 or stay that rampant ' inconvertible ' thing, criticism ; 

 that battery of inextinguishable pop-guns that is never 

 silenced or taken by assault. Down however went 

 the fences notwithstanding : and certainly, without 

 reference to any of the more subterraneous improve- 

 ments, of drainage, cultivation or otherwise, the mere 

 accession of business-like appearance to the farm 

 when denuded of its miles of jungle, was what Dame 

 Quickly would call " a thing to thank God upon." 



It would be a difficult but an interesting task to 

 make out a calculation of the economy per acre, of 

 the riddance of these hideous and useless strongholds 

 of roots, weeds, birds, and vermin that afflict the 

 farms of merry England. Unproductive in them- 

 selves of anything that is good for even the timber 



