The energetic lady of the small domain was profoundly dissatisfied with this state of affairs. So to work she went to study the science of agriculture and practical farming; and soon a Norfolk laborer was established on her land, and this small farm was under her own management. She set up a cross-pole fence around her estate, the first one ever seen in the Lake District; and, like a true woman, she planted roses all along the fence, to wreathe and decorate it in summer. Then she initiated her fellow-farmers into the mysteries of high farming, and stall feeding. "A cow to three acres" was the Lake rule; but she hired another half-acre of land, to add to her own, and showed that upon this total of two acres she could _almost_ keep two cows. Fowls and pigs were, of course, kept also; and all the household comforts which cows, hens, and pigs supply were obtained from her land at, practically, no cost at all. The subsistence of the laborer and his wife was created out of the soil; and the house had a constant supply of vegetables, milk, eggs, and hams, at a less expense than buying had previously been, and with a much nicer and always certain supply. The experiment became famous in a small way. "People came to see how we arranged our ground, so as to get such crops out of it,"[16] and one of the Poor-Law Commissioners, having asked her for a private account of how she had managed her little farm, printed her letter in the _Times_, without asking her consent. This brought such a flood of correspondence on her that she was compelled to write on the subject for publication, and so the farm superintendence resulted in a piece of literary work for the mistress. [16] _Health, Husbandry and Handicraft_, p. 269, "Our Farm of Two Acres." Now we will see what her pen was doing while all these activities were helping to fill her days. CHAPTER IX. IN THE MATURITY OF HER POWERS.