ed berths, one
above the other, complete the _tout ensemble_. These shanties are
generally constructed to accommodate from two to three gangs of lumber
men, with shed-room for twelve or fourteen span of oxen or horses span
being the Canadian term for pair.]

CHAPTER III

INEXPERIENCE OF MY FRIEND. -- BAD STATE OF HIS LAND. -- FALL WHEAT. --
FENCING. -- GRASSES. -- INVITATION TO A "BEE." -- UNITED LABOUR. --
CANADIAN SPORTS. -- DEGENERACY OF BEES.

COLONEL B----- was an old and valued friend of my family, who had held
a lucrative situation under Government for many years. His retirement
from public life, on some disgust, had eventually led to his settlement
in Canada.

Now, his literary tastes and sedentary habits had ill-fitted him for
the rough customs of the colony. Besides having scarcely seen a grain
of corn in its progressive state from the blade to its earing and
harvest, he knew nothing of agricultural operations. Of stock he was
equally ignorant, and of the comparative goodness or badness of soil he
was, of course, no judge. Such a man, in the choice of a farm, was sure
to be shaved by the shrewd Yankee proprietor, and my poor friend was
shaved accordingly.

I found my friend's farm had been much neglected. His out-door
labourers were all from the south of Ireland, and had never before
followed farming operations. In consequence of their inexperience, half
the clearing was quite overrun with raspberries and Canadian thistles.
(The latter weed is far more troublesome to eradicate than any other I
know. It is the same as the common corn-thistle, or _Serratula
arvensis_, so well known to English agriculturists).

As we intended to prepare a large piece of ground for summer-fallow, it
was necessary to get rid of those stumps of the trees, which, according
to the practice of chopping them two or three feet from the ground,
present a continual obstacle to the advance of the plough. We, however,
succeeded in getting clear of them by hitching a logging-chain round
the stump near the top, when a sudden jerk from the oxen was generally
sufficient to pull it up. For the larger, and those more firmly fixed
in the ground, we made use of a lever about twenty feet long, and about
eight or nine inches in diameter, one end of which was securely chained
to the stump, the oxen being fastened to the other and made to go in a
circular direction, a manoeuvre which rarely fails of the desired
effect. This plan will not ans