why it should be done one way here, and another way there, are no
less so. The uninitiated have no idea of the complicated patterns
which the ploughman works, according to the nature of the soil and
the season of the year in which he labours. He may be "gathering
up--crown-and-furrow ploughing--casting, or yoking, or coupling
ridges--casting ridges with gore furrows--cleaving down ridges with
or without gore furrows--ploughing two-out-and-two-in--ploughing in
breaks--cross-furrowing--angle-ploughing, ribbing, and drilling--or
he may be preparing the land by feering or striking the ridges."--
(Vol. i. p. 464.) All these methods of turning up the land are
described and illustrated by wood-cuts, and we are sure quite as
effectually done upon paper as if the author had been explaining
them upon his own farm, guiding one of his own best ploughs, and
strengthened by a basin of good brose made from his own meal-chest.

But the practical skill of Mr. Stephens is not confined to the lower
walks of the agricultural life. The ploughman sometimes qualifies
himself to become a steward, that he may rid himself of the drudgery
of working horses. He has then new duties to perform, which are thus
generally described.

"The duty of the _steward_ or _grieve_, as he is called in some
parts of Scotland, and _bailiff_ in England, consists in receiving
general instructions from his master, the farmer, which he sees
executed by the people under his charge. He exercises a direct
control over the ploughmen and field-workers.... It is his duty to
enforce the commands of his master, and to check every deviation
from rectitude he may observe in the servants against his interests.
It is not generally understood that he has control over the shepherd,
the hedger, or the cattleman, who are stewards, in one sense, over