FARM RENOVATION. IOI- 



well I remember the plans and thought that were given during 

 that long, cold winter as to what should be planted and sowed 

 the next season that would not only go the farthest towards 

 wintering the family but that would help support the largest 

 stock. It was so long ago that I cannot recall just what the 

 next year's crop was, but I remember very distinctly how care- 

 fully it was husbanded and watched over, and what a bountiful 

 yield we had, everything taken into account. And above all 

 do 1 recall how carefully the barn dressing was looked after and 

 put where it would do the most good. 



The next winter we wintered two horses and two cows. This 

 gave us a team to work with, and the two cows produced milk 

 and butter enough so that we had something to sell every month 

 in the year. Things were now progressing. We had become 

 manufacturers, and that winter, with double the stock of the 

 winter before, we had double the amount of dressing for our 

 poor, impoverished fields, and a corresponding increase of crops, 

 which in turn allowed us to winter two more cows and make a 

 start not only on a flock of sheep, but to winter four calves, a 

 pair of steers and two heifers. Now we w T ere surely getting 

 along finely, but not a dollar had been spent for fertilizers nor 

 for help on the farm. When we thought we could spare any 

 money in this direction we put it into fodder, w T hich allowed us 

 to winter one more head of stock, and thus increase our fertilizer 

 supply and our holdings of live stock. 



We had now got to the endless chain phase in farming. We 

 kept more stock each season so that we could raise more crops, 

 and we raised more crops so we could winter more stock. Thus 

 you will see that things assumed a very easy condition. Of 

 course there was lots of hard work yet to be done, but the labor 

 brought us quick returns for those times, and each year we could 

 see that w r e were making sure, if not rapid advancement. When 

 I finally left the farm to engage in other pursuits we had four 

 horse kind, six cows, a yoke of four-year-old steers that no one 

 had ever held a goad over but myself, a yoke of three-year-olds, 

 two-year-olds, yearlings and four calves, and twenty-five sheep, 

 not to mention a good showing in the poultry yard. In the mean- 

 time we had built a large, capacious barn, made necessary by 

 the increased fertility of the farm, which, by the way, was under 

 a high state of cultivation, thanks to a well polished plow, oper- 



