TAKING REINS IN HAND. 55 



agricultural employment, as hygienic. There seems 

 to have been a mania with the old New England 

 householders, in the country, for multiplying enclo- 

 sures, front yards, back yards, south and north 

 yards, all with their palings and gates, which grow 

 shaky with years, and give cover to rank and worth- 

 less vegetation in corners, that no cultivation can 

 reach. Of this multitude of palings I made short 

 work : good taste, economy, and all rules of good 

 tillage, unite in favor of the fewest possible enclo- 

 sures, and confirm the wisdom of making the palings 

 for such as are necessary, as simple as their office of 

 defence will allow. 



So it happened under my ruling that the little 

 terrace yard of the front lost its identity, and was 

 merged in the yard to the north, with the lit- 

 tle bewildered garden to the south, with the 

 straggling peach orchard in the rear ; and all these 

 merged again, by the removal of a tottling wall, 

 with the valley pasture that lay southward; where 

 now clumps of evergreen, and azalias, and lilacs 

 crown the little swells, and hide the obtrusive angles 

 of barriers beyond ; so that the children may race, 

 from the door, over firm, clean, green sward, for a 

 gunshot away. This change has not been only 

 to the credit of the eye, but in every particular 

 economic. The cost of establishing and repairing the 



