• Winning a Living on Four Acres. By Fred. A.
Morton. (A. C. Fifield. ls. net.)—We understand Mr. Morton's conclusion to 'be that he gets a satisfactory return for his work in health and mental refreshment, but not in money. He finds himself recovering an old interest in literature and acquiring a new one in Nature, but he does not make a satisfactory balance-sheet. His accounts for 1907 show a profit of 440 10s. (printed 441 8s.) (garden, 48 5s.; fowls, 428 5s.; bees, 44) ; those for 1908, 445 6s. (the returns for garden and fowls being 43 14s. less, for bees 4.8 10s. more). Tithes, rates, and Dog-tax come to 43 18s. 6d. ; me rent is charged, and this for house and land would hardly be less titan 425. Moreover, with the candour which distinguishes him; Mr. Morton confesses that the mental and moral account does not show an unmixed profit. " Instead of attaining to a happy indifference to all the mundane aspects of life, I find myself regarding life more and more from the business point of view • . . . • . though, perhaps, deep down in me, a greater determina- tion not to be beaten than I thought, but this quality itself seems liable to breed a dissatisfaction with simple modes of life." This is just what David Harum says: "Small farmin' ain't cal'lated to fetch out the best traits of human nature." The book is full of interesting practical details. One of these touches the poultry-farm question. On the whole, the experience is adverse. An uncertain climate and a quite nndiscoverable idiosyncrasy in the animals make it a very doubtful business. Mr. Morton thinks that he might have done better on other soil and by using other methods, but his actual experience has not been satisfactory.
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