298 OLD sAi;\iA. 



clav when they i)re[)are tlu; soil for the ruc(;])tioii of tlu; ])ars- 

 nip cro}) which su[)plies the kinc with so excellent and ann)le 

 a provision of winter food. 



In the fretful season of lono- dark nights, amon(>- rural 

 grandees, the gayest of the gay have often crowded round the 

 festive board, where at Les liocques or Les Padins, Moussieu 

 le Procureux du Ke, or Moussieu le .lure de la Cour Royale, 

 deemed it no shght honour to preside when the great plough 

 had performed its important annual task. 



Deep furrows are a sine (jad noti in parsnij) culture. Hut 

 the instrument destined to cleave the soil is no bauble, and 

 our insular studs of liorses are, like our means, rather limited ; 

 so that an association of small proprietors of land for mutual 

 aid is as necessary here as anywdiere. Mr. Quayle says that 

 about sixty years ago a Jersey farmer constructed a plough 

 oi large dimensions Avhich would supersede the necessity of 

 digging. After many attempts the mighty machine Avas com- 

 pleted. Previously to the invention of this implement, digging- 

 was universal, it seems. But w^e never heard of two or more 

 persons possessing a plough in partnership, though the fact is 

 not implausible when we consider what small patches of arable 

 soil fall to the lot of many a joint heir or heiress of some 

 patriarch whose estate is of trifling dimensions and whose 

 quiver was left well filled with living arrows. We must 

 expect a few touches of the ludicrous from an agricultural 

 observer so scientific and well-informed as Mr. Quayle ; our 

 people's independent stubbornness well accounts for their 

 attachment to certain unprofitable old customs ; their dislike 

 of the hoe, for example, and their tedious knee-sw^addled mode 

 of weeding [still to be frequently seen in (juernsey in the 

 present twentieth century. — Ed.] 



An experienced English farmer naturalised amongst us, 

 wdiose testimony excludes every doubt, says he met in one 

 instance at a (jrati kerue " twenty-two animals harnessed to 

 the plough, namely six bullocks and sixteen horses." Indeed, 

 it is considered a point of honour for every man who is worth 

 a beast to produce it on this occasion. 



The plough is now in full swing. Pierre, Nicolas, Jean, 

 Toumas, Laurent, <S:c., are at their respective posts. The 

 horses and bullocks are pulling like one : Sieur Tam de la 

 Mare is at the ])lough tail, and making a furrow which deviates 

 neither to the right nor to the left. All the prettiest girls of 

 the district, Judith, Betsy, Marguerite, Kache, &c., have 

 been invited to be the cup-bearers on the field, marshalled 

 under the watchful eye of old Benjamin Blampied. As the 



