AN OLD-STYLE FARM. 21 



Lancashire; wondering at that orderly, systematic 

 cultivation of which New England had not dreamed 

 wondering at the grand results of this liberal and 

 generous culture, and more than ever disgusted at the 

 pinched and starveling way in which my countrymen 

 were cheating the land of its opulent privilege of pro- 

 duction. 



I have written this little descriptive episode of 

 a farm-life in New England to serve as the background 

 for certain illustrative hints toward the amendment 

 of rural life whether in matters of good husbandry, 

 or of good taste ; I have furthermore ventured upon 

 certain homeliness of detail in these opening pages, to 

 show that I may have privilege of speech. 



There is no manner of work done upon a New 

 England farm to which some day I have not put my 

 hand whether it be chopping wood, laying wall, 

 sodding a coal-pit, cradling oats, weeding corn, shear- 

 ing sheep, or sowing turnips. Therefore, in any 

 future references which I may make in the course of 

 these papers to farm life, I trust that my good readers 

 will credit me with a certain connaissance de cause. 



