A 'PRACTICAL' BEGINNING. 



19 



trials and troubles of farming : at that instant my 

 eyes began to open to the true meaning of those 

 ' practical difficulties ' which the uninitiated laugh 

 at, because they have never encountered them ; and 

 which the man of science despises who has said to 

 steam, water, and machinery, ' Do this, and they do 

 it,' but has never known what it is to try and guide 

 out of the old track, a mind that has run in the same 

 rut ' this forty year and more.' 



' As the weakest Irak of a chain is the measure of its strength.' 



C 2 



