CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



appointed every part of it to accomplish, and to vindi- 

 cate, 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 ex- 

 perience, have the boldness to attack it : but if com- 

 pelled to do so by duty or necessity, the only difference 

 in my course would be a more resolute and compre- 

 hensive plan, based upon a deeper reliance on my 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 question 

 my task shall be concluded ; and the personal 

 experience of a landowner occupying the most diffi- 

 cult of his own farms, and striving to ' sound the bass 

 string' of the matter, by assuming the actual circum- 



