In New England, a man would think he began under favorable auspices if he were able to enter upon the occupancy of equal extent with 100 pounds, or about $500.
On returning from the Fens, I passed the night and most of the following day at Woodhurst, a village a few miles north of St.Ives, on the upland rising gently from the valley of the Ouse.

My host here was a farmer, owning the land he tilled, cultivating it and the moral character and happiness of the little community, in which he moved as a father, with an equally generous heart and hand, and reaping a liberal reward from both departments of his labor.

He took me over his fields, and showed me his crops and live stock, which were in excellent condition.

Harvesting had already commenced, and the reapers were at work, men and women, cutting wheat and barley.

Few of them used sickles, but a curved knife, wider than the sickle, of nearly the same shape, minus the teeth.