f properly applied, is worth almost its
weight in gold. The very gateways of the fields in winter are a
Slough of Despond, where the wheels sink in up to the axles, and in
summer great ruts jolt the loads almost off the waggons.

Where the steam-plough is kept, where first-class stock are bred,
there the labourer is well housed, and his complaints are few and
faint. There cottages with decent and even really capital
accommodation for the families spring up, and are provided with
extensive gardens. It is not easy, in the absence of statistics, to
compare the difference in the amount of money put in circulation by
these contrasted farms, but it must be something extraordinary.
First comes the capital expenditure upon machinery--ploughs,
engines, drills, what not--then the annual expenditure upon labour,
which, despite the employment of machinery, is as great or greater
upon a progressive farm as upon one conducted on stagnant
principle. Add to this the cost of artificial manure, of cake and
feeding-stuffs, etc., and the total will be something very heavy.
Now, all this expenditure, this circulation of coin, means not only
gain to the individual, but gain to the country at large. Whenever
in a town a great manufactory is opened and gives employment to
several hundred hands, at the same time increasing the production
of a valuable material, the profit--the _outside_ profit, so to
say--is as great to others as to the proprietors. But these
half-cultivated lands, these tons upon tons of wasted manure, these
broad hedges and weed-grown fields, represent upon the other hand
an equal loss. The labouring classes in the rural districts are
eager for more work. They may popularly be supposed to look with
suspicion upon change, but such an idea is a mistaken one. They
anxiously wait the approach of such works as new railways or
extension of old ones in the hope of additional employment. Work is
their gold-mine, and the best mine of all. The capitalist,
therefore, who sets himself to improve his holding is the very man
they most desire to see. What scope is there for work upon a
stagnant dairy farm of one hundred and fifty acres? A couple of
foggers and milkers, a hedger and ditcher, two or three women at
times, and there is the end. And such work!--mere animal labour,
leading to so little result. The effect of constant, of lifelong
application in such labour cannot but be deteriorating to the mind.
The master himself must feel the