* EABTIl'-STOPPING. 45 



over the bird?s-eye view of acres which I now 

 began to find were trodden by bipeds and qua- 

 drupeds 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 head-craft, as 

 lavishly 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 pre- 

 cisely 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 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 

 improvements of drainage, cultivation, or otherwise, 

 the mere accession of business-like appearance to the 

 farm, when denuded of its miles of jungle, was, 

 as Dame Quickly says, <a thing to thank God 

 upon.' 



It would be a difficult but 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 



