, not owners; like receiving dividends on stock, which
stock is never seen or handled. Their rights are legal only; his
right was the right of labour, and, it might be added, of
forbearance. It is a condition of ownership in the United States
that the settler clears so much and brings so many acres into
cultivation. It was just this condition which he had practically
carried out upon the Thardover estate. He had done so much, and in
so varied a manner, that it is difficult to select particular acts
for enumeration. All the great agricultural movements of the last
thirty years he had energetically supported. There was the draining
movement. The undulating contour of the country, deep vales
alternating with moderate brows, gave a sufficient supply of water
to every farm, and on the lower lands led to flooding and the
formation of marshes. Horley Bottom, where the hay used to be
frequently carried into the river by a June freshet, was now safe
from flood. Flag Marsh had been completely drained, and made some of
the best wheat-land in the neighbourhood. Part of a bark canoe was
found in it; the remnants were preserved at Thardover House, but
gradually fell to pieces.

Longboro' Farm was as dry now as any such soil could be. More or
less draining had been carried out on twenty other farms, sometimes
entirely at his expense. Sometimes the tenant paid a small
percentage on the sum expended; generally this percentage fell off
in the course of a year or two. The tenant found he could not pay
it. Except on Flag Marsh, the drainage did not pay him L50. Perhaps
it might have done, had the seasons been better; but, as it had
actually happened, the rents had decreased instead of increasing.
Tile-pipes had not availed against rain and American wheat. So far
as income was concerned, he would have been richer had the money so
expended been allowed to accumulate at the banker's. The land as
land was certainly improved in places, as on Bartholomew's farm.
Thardover never cared for the steam-plough; personally, he disliked
it. Those who represented agricultural opinion at the farmers' clubs
and in the agricultural papers raised so loud a cry for it that he
went half-way to meet them. One of the large tenants was encouraged
to invest in the steam-plough by a drawback on his rent, on
condition that it should be hired out to others. The steam-plough,
Thardover soon discovered, was not profitable to the landowner. It
reduced the fields to a