July 1, 1900.j THE TROPICAL 
whilst the oae he took so chea|)ly 
only giive him three to fouv quarters, 
ami so tlie last stage ol' that iiuiii 
was worse than tlie first A very low rented 
farm is, generally, one that is not 
worth taking in at present, and only farms 
that caii be worked up lo tlie highest state 
of cultis ation are worth taking<jn lease now- 
a-days. 1'he low pi ices ruling for grain, beef 
and mutton compel one, not only to seciu'e 
a good farm at a fair rent, but also to culti- 
vate it at higli pressure, in order to pay the 
labom* bill and h i ve something over. Fai-ni- 
ing on the cheap won't do at all, and, if 
high farming won t pay, certainly low farm- 
ing will not do so. 
Having secured the farm that he wishes, 
or perhaps has iieen obliged to take, for want 
of a better, the next step '^f greatest im- 
.portance is the securing of the proper kind 
_ OF LABOITRERR, 
.and this is not such a difficult thing 
after all. in s))ite of the out cry about the 
scai-city of labour. The ordinary course is 
to go to a fee-iiig market, and there engage 
the number of hands required, and these are 
engaged for six months, during which time 
their faults and failings are discovered, and 
a fresh lot is engaged at the next term. 
That has not been my policy, and I find 
my own way to work fully better than the 
usual custom of the district. I have never 
been at a fee ing market yet, I engaged my 
men by their looks and the characters I had 
heard given to them, and these luen have 
been with me ever since 1 came to this farm. 
I treat them well, and they treat me in the 
same way in return. They will work extra 
time and out of all hours without a grumble, 
and, when they want a day's leave, they 
know that they only have to ask for it, and 
they will get it. These men were in the 
habit of changing theii' places every six 
luontlis, like other hands, before they came 
to me, but now they appear to have settled 
down for the term of their natural lives, and 
cultivate their bit of garden, as if they own 
it, and had no fear of its being taken from 
them. In New Zealand and Australia my 
servants never left me, after being engaged, 
and my coolies in (Jeylon remained with 
nie the whole time i was there; whilst my 
dressing-hoy was with me during the Avhole 
time of my stay in your island. 
Now I would recomuien<l others to adopt 
the same policy with their hands, remem- 
bering that the frequent changes made by 
servants is accounted for, not so much because 
■ they a.re incapable, as because theii masters 
are unreasonable. Many so-called geiiti"- 
meii farmers think it degrades Lhem to speak 
IX A FRIENDLY WAY 
to their hired servants, and so these 
c;in never have the same regard for 
their master's interests as they would, 
if treated in a more friendly wa.y. My men 
have been so long with me that they ca^n fit 
the^uselves to the work more systematically 
■than could others, who are changed every 
six months ; an^i so I know that I get much 
more v.'ork done, for iny money, than my 
ueig'''''ours do. The labour bill is the bugbear 
AORICrLTURIST. ll 
of farmers ; not only do they fiud a difficulty 
in getting hands, but they find a greater 
difficulty in getting as much work out of 
them as will p:\y their ^^■ages. 
The custom which obtains, in Ceylon, of 
taking creepers at a high premium, ;ind pro- 
fessing to teach them tlie noitle art of tea plant- 
ing is not singular in its colice[)tion, as a some- 
what similar means of livelihood is indulged 
in, by fiirmers and even landed proprietors 
in this tight little island, who, for a tidy 
consideration, take 
MUD-STUDEXTS 
into the bosom of their families, and make a 
pretence of teacriing them to be practical farm- 
ers. There are no mud-students in this district 
of Scotland, but on the borders as many as 
three and fo\u' are to be found on various 
farms, paying from £HOl) to £10!) per annum, 
which entitles them to keep a- hunter, ;iud to 
follow the hounds as often ,as their horse can 
be found capable of the exertion. M:OSt of 
these vomig men, that 1 have come across, 
served in their salad days as soldiers, and 
consequently are quite unfit for any other 
profession, especially one that requires as 
much commonsense as fai'ming does; but 
they live a rollicking life and no doubt get a 
full value of amusement in return for the 
Ijremiums they pay. The hardest work that 
any of them does is executed to the strains 
of the "Blue Danube " or "Pas de Quatre ;" 
and when the hunting season is past, they 
spend their time sitting on a, log smoking 
extra strong tobacco. At fairs and sheep 
sales, on the borders, the mud-students as- 
semble from far and near and are easily 
known because they are ever the horsiest in 
th-"ir outward appearance, just as you find 
the very plain young person is always 
keenest at the '^unday-scbool class. Military 
men don't look well on horseback ; there is 
an old saying — " Hiding sti'aight up and 
down, like an officer" — which exactly ex- 
presses the attitude peculiar to the military 
rider. It has been truthfully said that riding 
seems a physical impossibility for stiilors, 
tailors and dragoon officers ; yet I have seen 
military men ride well to the front, both on 
the fiat and over the sticks, although thks 
might be accounted for, as a friend of mine 
once pertinently said, because the great art 
of jockeyship was in being on the best horse. 
The system of taking mud-students on^ at 
high premiums, h;,s helped to keep the an- 
cestral roofs on many family mansions, and 
no doubt the creeper has been the means of 
enabling many a hard-up planter to pace his 
mortgaged verandah for some years longer 
th.m he otherwise might have done. 
POULTRY FANCIERS 
have been sadly depressed lately, owing 
to a sudden drop in the price of eggs, 
which fell, with a bang, from 18d to 6cT a 
dozen. One of my neighbours had tears ixi 
her eyes as she told me the fateful news, and 
asked me if I could account for the sudden 
fall in price of her principal market staple. 
I tried to comfort her by saying that pro- 
bably the quality had something to do with 
the matter for I believed that, at this season 
of the year, hens were frequently not very 
