VII. 



"THROUGH THE WHEAT." 



OFTEN sit at a little latticed 

 window at the back of my 

 house in the country, and look 

 over a wide expanse of land- 

 scape. Just beyond the hedge, 

 of which I have given a description in a former 

 chapter, there is, as I mentioned there, a wheat field. 

 I say wheat field, because that is the crop that best 

 I like to see upon it ; but, of course, it must pass 

 through the regular rotation of crops, to which farmers, 

 by a most antiquated and short-sighted system, are 

 still bound in lease or even agreement ; so that all free 

 action that would enable them, by foresight and prud- 

 ence, to take advantage of a market suddenly opened, 

 or likely to be suddenly opened, is hindered. The 

 present depressed condition of agriculture may be due 

 to many causes, some of them preventible, some of 

 them not ; this is one of the causes that could easily 

 be removed, and ought to be, so that a man might be 

 enabled to make the best use of his acreage that he 

 could. 



Beyond this wheat field lie greeny meadows, often 

 with the most delicious effects of light and shade upon 



