228 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



is that scattereth and yet increaseth :" and He who 

 appointed Life as an advancing experience, appointed 

 every part of it to accomplish, and to vindicate, its 

 appropriate phase and character. 



So I now feel it, whether I mentally review the en- 

 terprise, labour, and amusement of years gone by, or 

 whether I look over the comparatively reclaimed acres 

 and shrub-embosomed homestead of the once dreary 

 spot it was my privilege to find 'thrown upon my 

 hands ' at a moment when the drearier waste within 

 defied the outer landscape. Could the scene be pre- 

 sented to me again with the aspect it once wore, I 

 should hardly, even with the bought economy of 

 experience, have the boldness to attack it : but if 

 compelled to do so by duty or necessity, the only 

 difference in my course would be a more resolute and 

 comprehensive plan, based upon a deeper reliance on 

 the first instincts and judgment, unchilled by the 

 timid and discouraging language which surrounding 

 practice casts, in nearly every district, across the path 

 of the improver in agriculture. 



Whence this timidity and this discouragement ? 



With the attempt to answer this important ques- 

 tion my task shall be concluded; and the personal 

 experience of a landowner occupying the most diffi- 



