The other day, I was talking to Peter Brimelow, and he had to interrupt his hard work of editing to go actually mow his own lawn, with the kind of conservative mower that you push with your actual hands.

I said it could be worse, you could have to mow the whole thing with a scythe—here's an essay by Hilaire Belloc describing his mowing a two acre field with a single helper, two scythes, and a gallon jar of small ale.

 Well then, this man I spoke of offered to help me, and he went to get his scythe. But I went into this house and brought out a gallon jar of small ale for him and for me; for the sun was now very warm, and small ale goes well with mowing. When we had drunk some of this ale in mugs called “I see you,” we took each a swathe, he a little behind me because he was the better mower; and so for many hours we swung, one before the other, mowing and mowing at the tall grass of the field. And the sun rose to noon and we were still at our mowing; and we ate food, but only for a little while, and we took again to our mowing. And at last there was nothing left but a small square of grass, standing like a square of linesmen who keep their formation, tall and unbroken, with all the dead lying around them when the battle is over and done.

.11. The Mowing of a Field by Hilaire Belloc. Morley, Christopher, ed. 1921. Modern Essays

Anyhow, for those of you who don't want to do this, and who don't feel like hiring illegals aliens to mow your lawn, my early article Mowing Alone pointed out that it's possible to have this done by a robot, see FriendlyRobotics.com.