134 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



farmers contrive to get their labor for eight or ten dollars a month 

 and board. The citizen's home once built, he looks upon all heavy 

 expenditures as over; but how many hundreds — perhaps thousands, , 

 has he not paid for out-buildings, for fences, for roads, &c. Cutting 

 down yonder hUl, which made an ugly blotch in the view, — ^it 

 looked like a trifling task ; yet there were $500 swept clean out of 

 his bank account, and there seems almost nothing to show for it. 

 You would not believe now that any hill ever stood there — or at 

 least that nature had not arranged it all (as you feel she ought to 

 have done), just as you see it. Your favorite cattle and horses have 

 died, and the flock of sheep have been sadly diminished by the dogs, 

 all to be replaced — and a careftd account of the men's time, labor 

 and manure on the, grain fields, shows that for some reason that you, 

 cannot understand, the crop — ^which is a fair one, has actually cpst 

 you a trifle more than it is worth in a good market. 



To cut a long story shoit, the larger part of our citizens who re- 

 tire upon a farm to make it a country residence, are not aware o^ 

 the fact, that capital cannot be profitably employed on land in thfe 

 Atlantic States without a thoroughly proMtical knowledge of farm- 

 ing. A close and systematic economy, upon a good soil, may, 

 enable, and does enable some gentlemen farmers that we could 

 name, to make a good profit out of their land — but citizens whci 

 launch boldly into farming, hiring farm laborers at high prices, and 

 trusting operations to others that should be managed under the 

 master's eye — ^are very likely to find their faims a sinking fund that 

 will drive them back into business again. 



To be happy in any business or occupation (and country life on 

 a farm is a matter of business), we must have some kind of success 

 in it ; and there is no success without profit, and no profit without 

 practical knowledge of farming. 



The lesson that we would deduce from these reflections is this ; 

 that no mere amateur should buy a large farm for a country resi- 

 dence, with the expectation of finding pleasure and profit in it for 

 the rest of his life, unless, like some citizens that we have known — r 

 rare exceptions — they have a genius for all manner of business, and 

 can master the whole of farming, as they would learn a running- 

 hand in six easy lessons. Farming, in the older States, where the 



