by
the law _works of necessity_. Harvesting and haymaking are allowed to be
carried on on the Sunday, in certain cases; when they are always carried
on by _provident farmers_. And I should be glad to know the case which is
more a _case of necessity_ than that now under our view. In fact, the
labouring people _do work on the Sunday_ morning in particular, all over
the country, at something or other, or they are engaged in pursuits a good
deal less religious than that of digging and planting. So that, as to _the
200 hours_, they are easily found, without the loss of any of the time
required for constant daily labour.

134. And what a _produce_ is that of a cow! I suppose only an average of
5 _quarts of milk a day_. If made into butter, it will be _equal every
week to two days of the man's wages_, besides the value of the skim milk:
and this can hardly be of less value than another day's wages. What a
thing, then, is this cow, if she earn half as much as the man! I am
greatly under-rating her produce; but I wish to put all the advantages at
the lowest. To be sure, there is work for the wife, or daughter, to milk
and make butter. But the former is done at the two ends of the day, and
the latter only about once in the week. And, whatever these may subtract
from the _labours of the field_, which all country women ought to be
engaged in whenever they conveniently can; whatever the cares created by
the cow may subtract from these, is amply compensated for by the
_education_ that these cares will give to the children. They will _all_
learn to milk,[7] and the girls to make butter. And which is a thing of
the very first importance, they will all learn, from their infancy, to
_set a just value upon dumb animals_, and will grow up in the _habit_ of
treating them with gentleness and feeding them with care. To those who
have not been brought up in the midst of rural affairs, it is hardly
possible to give an adequate idea of the importance of this part of
_education_. I should be very loth to intrust the care of my horses,
cattle, sheep, or pigs, to any one whose father never had cow or pig of
his _own_. It is a general complaint, that servants, and especially
farm-servants, are not _so good as they used to be_. How should they? They
were formerly the sons and daughters of _small farmers_; they are now the
progeny of miserable property-less labourers. They have never seen an
animal in which they had any interest. They are careless by h