154 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



as we remarked this morning. Rents rising, and 

 prices falling ! " 



" Aye ! and the farmer's business getting worse 

 every year. 'Tisn't like what it used to be." 



" Just so ! and competition keeping up the rents 

 notwithstanding !" 



" Aye ! that Competition ! It didn't use to be so. 

 And what is it after all ? No sooner a Farm 's vacant 

 than a hundred fellows come yelping after it like a 

 pack-o' -hounds, offering a high rent, and not one 

 of 'em perhaps with the valye of a team o' horses of 

 his own, scarce : and when they get in, what do they 

 do ? Crop every field that '11 bear a crop, sell all off 

 for a few years, and then leave it clean beggared, and 

 the landlord without his last year's rent p'rhaps." 



" No Turnips they take no root, Greening ! " 



" Turnips ! they've no stock to give 'em to ! What's 

 the use o' them growing Turnips ? that's not their sort 

 o' business." 



"And they outbid the honest cultivator, and the 

 skilful one : in fact they can afford to do so, because 

 they can afford to rob : just as though a man offered 

 you a higher rent for your house, meaning to sell oft' 

 the furniture ? " 



" That's just it : that's just what it is, sure/y." 



