134 MY FARM. 



expense for diggin' o' post holes," which remark in 

 so obviously sound, that it is passed by in silence. 



The clearance, however, goes forward swim- 

 mingly. The new breadth which seems given to the 

 land as the dwarfish fields disappear one after 

 another, develops a beauty of its own. The Yellow- 

 weeds, and withered wild-grasses, which had clung 

 under the shelter of the fences, even with the best 

 care, are all shorn away. The tortuous and irregu- 

 lar lines which the frosts had given to the reeling 

 platoons of rails, perplex the eye no more. 



Near to the centre of these opened fields is a 

 great feeding-shed, one hundred feet by forty, its 

 ridge high, and the roof sloping away in swift pitch 

 on either side to lines of posts, rising eight feet only 

 from the ground. The gables are covered in with 

 rough material, in such shape as to leave three sim- 

 ple open arches at either end ; the middle opening, 

 high and broad, so that loaded teams may pass 

 beneath ; the two flanking arches, lower, and open- 

 ing upon two ranges of stalls which sweep down on 

 either side the building. These stalls are so dis- 

 posed that the cattle are fed directly from cartb 

 passing around the exterior. Behind either range of 

 cattle is a walk five feet broad ; and between these 

 walks, an open space sixteen feet wide, traversing 

 the whole length of the building, and serving at once 



