their national pride somewhat to find that American
reaping-machines were in use on the farm, and they also learned that the
plowing was done with American plows. The field stretched out to an
almost limitless extent, and it needed very little play of the
imagination for the youths to believe that they were on one of their own
western prairies instead of being at the antipodes.

The farm seemed to be managed in a most systematic manner, and before
they departed the owner showed them a copy of the rules which the men
were required to sign when they were engaged. Before signing, the rules
were read to them line by line, and sentence by sentence, and each man
acknowledged that he had a full understanding of the documents to which
he affixed his signature.

Perhaps it may interest our readers to know something about these
rules. Sixty men are employed on a farm throughout the whole year, and
in the busy season three times that number are engaged. Here is the
substance of the rules:--

"The bell rings at five o'clock in the morning, and this is the signal
for everybody to get up. Horses are groomed and fed before six o'clock,
and at that hour the men are served with breakfast. At seven o'clock the
teams are harnessed, and teams and men go to the field. At noon one hour
is allowed for rest and dinner, and then work goes on until five o'clock
in winter and six o'clock in summer. Then the teams return to the
stables, and the men get their suppers at seven o'clock. The horses are
fed and watered at eight o'clock, and by ten o'clock everybody must be
in bed."

First-class hands on these farms receive twenty shillings ($5) per week,
and employees of other grades are paid in proportion. One clause in the
rules says that any man in charge of horses who abuses them or neglects
to care for them properly will be discharged at once, and forfeit all
wages that may be due him. Penalties are stated for every sort of
offense, all of them being in the shape of fines or loss of situation,
or both. Every laborer who begins in a low position is promised an
advance in pay and place as a reward of his industry and good conduct.

"There are a good many farms of this sort in South Australia," said Ned
in his journal, "and we are sorry that time prevents our visiting all
those that we have been invited to see; but our regret is modified by
the recollection that one farm is very largely a repetition of another
farm, and so we accept the situatio