PHASES OF FARM LIFE 



labor, as in the South or West, for the fence is of 

 stone, and the capacity of the soil for grass or grain 

 is, of course, increased by its construction. It is 

 killing two birds with one stone: a fence is had, 

 the best in the world, while the available area of 

 the field is enlarged. In fact, if there are ever 

 sermons in stones, it is when they are built into a 

 stone wall, turning your hindrances into helps, 

 shielding your crops behind the obstacles to your 

 husbandry, making the enemies of the plow stand 

 guard over its products. This is the kind of farm- 

 ing worth imitating. A stone wall with a good 

 rock bottom will stand as long as a man lasts. Its 

 only enemy is the frost, and it works so gently 

 that it is not till after many years that its effect is 

 perceptible. An old farmer will walk with you 

 through his fields and say, " This wall I built at 

 such and such a time, or the first year I came on 

 the farm, or when I owned such and such a span of 

 horses," indicating a period thirty, forty, or fifty 

 years back. " This other, we built the summer so 

 and so worked for me," and he relates some inci- 

 dent, or mishap, or comical adventures that the 

 memory calls up. Every line of fence has a his- 

 tory; the mark of his plow or his crowbar is upon 

 the stones ; the sweat of his early manhood put them 

 in place; in fact, the long black line covered with 

 lichens and in places tottering to the fall revives 

 long-gone scenes and events in the life of the farm. 

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