WAY-SIDE HINTS. 117 



for months together some startling defect in my 

 grounds so deep is my assurance, that two days of 

 honest labor will remove it all, and startle on-lookers 

 by the change. 



But let no rural enthusiast hope to up-root all the 

 ill-growth, or to smooth all the roughnesses in a year. 

 He would be none the happier if he could. We find 

 our highest pleasure in conquest of difficulties. And 

 he who has none to conquer, or does not meet them, 

 must be either fool or craven. 



Ploughing and Drilled Crops. 



ONE of the most striking of those contrasts which 

 arrest the attention of an intelligent agricul- 

 tural observer, between the tillage of English fields 

 and those of New England, as well as of America 

 generally, is in the matter of plowing. In England, 

 bad plowing is rare ; in New England, good plowing 

 is even rarer. Something is to be allowed, of course, 

 for the irregular and rocky surface of new lands, but 

 even upon the best meadow bottoms along our river 

 courses, a clean, straight furrow, well turned, so as to 

 offer the largest possible amount of friable mould for 

 a seed-bed, is a sight so unusual, that in the month of 

 spring travel we might count the number on our 

 fingers. I go still farther, and say though doubtless 



