ploughed up for it in the autumn, that the land may be in good condition for the crop. About a month is occupied with the preparation of the ground in spring, from the middle of March to the middle of April. The potatoes being removed from the pit, and prepared in the barn, are planted either whole, or cut into parts called sets. A middle-sized potato may be cut into two or three sets, according to the number of eyes it may contain: there ought to be more than one eye in each set, lest that one should fail. As the sets are cut they should be dusted with slaked lime: the juice is thus absorbed, and a paste formed over the sets. Some persons encourage the potatoes to sprout before setting them, by covering them with a thin coating of earth, and watering them. Those which have the healthiest sprouts are then planted, and are said to be at least a fortnight forwarder in their growth than the ordinary crop.

The land being drilled so as to allow the planting to go on without interruption, the sets are placed at convenient distances in the field in sacks, each planter being provided with a basket, into which he puts a portion of the sets as he wants them. Manure is at the same time spread equally in the drills by women, while the planters follow, and put in the sets by dibble.* The operation is finished by the plough, which covers in the manure and the sets as fast as the planting is finished. Thus this important crop, formerly so regular in its returns, but now so difficult and disappointing to the farmer, is consigned to the earth.

The potato being very apt to degenerate, farmers sometimes raise them from the seed contained in the apples which grow upon the stalk. Ripe apples from a healthy plant are for this purpose chosen, and set apart in sand during winter. In April the seed is picked out and sown in rich garden ground, or it is sown in a hot-bed early in March, and planted out in

May. In October these seedlings will produce tubers, the largest of which are to be gathered and planted out in the following spring, at a few inches' distance from each other. After this, they may be hoed and treated as the old potato. But it takes three years to bring seedlings to maturity; and after all, they sometimes disappoint the expectations of the sower, and differ materially from the crop they were intended to perpetuate.

From what has been already said, it is evident that the round of employments belonging to the farmer's calling is never-ending, and must demand a great amount of diligence, patience, and good judgment, to ensure success. Intervals of leisure are few and far between, and must not be greatly sought after. The yearly toil of agricultural men is well described in the following passage :

"When we set out with the husbandman after the conclusion of his harvest labours, which may be aptly styled the commencement of the agricultural year, and follow him as he proceeds through the varied duties of the whole cycle, till we arrive with him at the same point in the following year, from which we had begun in the preceding, we observe that there is a perpetual alternation of employments, by which the amount of labour required upon the farm at each period of the year is pretty nearly equalized. One description of agricultural produce requires a longer union with the soil than another. Wheat, for example, should be sown in autumn. Oats ought not to be commited to the earth till March. Barley must be delayed still longer; while potatoes may be planted in May, and turnips drilled in June. This variety in the periods of seed-time is not more remarkable than that which occurs in those of in-gathering. The first principal crop raised in this country is rye-grass, upon which the sustenance of several of the valuable animals reared and employed upon the farm mainly depends. Mowing

YEARLY ROUND OF EMPLOYMENT.

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commences in June; and no sooner has this crop been secured, than the natural hay of the meadows demands the attention of the husbandman. Hard upon this crop follows the ripening of the various descriptions of grain, differing from one another in their periods, and the early and late varieties of each contributing still further to spread the process over a considerable proportion of autumn. The joyous harvest-home closes the year. The distribution of the labours requisite for the cultivation of the soil, however, beautiful as it is, does not so perfectly equalize the exertions of the several seasons so as to afford no periods of relaxation from the regular business of the farm. The arrangement produces only an approximation to this state, and an approximation is all that we require. There are many short seasons intervening, of which the farmer knows well how to take advantage for securing fuel, cutting drains, rearing fences, forming embankments, and superintending other operations, which can be performed during any part of the year, when the duties peculiar to the several seasons cease to require attention. Nor is there wanting to the agricultural labourer a time of innocent relaxation and mirth; for, during the frosts of winter, when the hills and valleys are bound with ice, and the plough can no longer penetrate the surface of the ground, he can lay aside for a little his daily labours, and improve his mind by reading, or exhilarate it by genial intercourse; thus unbending from the rigours of his laborious life, and by a few days of useful or innocent amusement lightening the toil of a whole year."*

Duncan's "Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons."

THE life of a shepherd is naturally looked upon as one of peace and contentment. If you go abroad in the early morning, and see him leading forth his bleating flock, his eye brightened with cheerfulness, his cheek ruddy with health: if you hear his clear whistle mingling with the song of the lark, and nearly as joyous; and see with what humble affectionate looks he is followed by his faithful dog, you have a picture of country