A GREAT SUCCESS. 155 



the farm was run out, and I went to work to bring it up. It 

 was in the spring ; and I put in a crop of barley, thinking I 

 must have something to feed to my cows in the winter, and 

 barley can be raised quicker than any thing else : so I put 

 in barley, and seeded down to grass. I found, when my bar- 

 ley came off, that there was a beautiful crop of grass coming 

 up ; but there came a hot sun the next day, and wilted it. 

 It came up during the night ; but the next day it went down. 

 As I say, I was a young farmer, and I thought I must learn 

 by experience. I had intelligent farmers around me, and got 

 a good deal of information from them ; but, having been 

 born in Scotland, I had a will of my own, and sometimes 

 took my own way, even though I had to pay for the experi- 

 ence. I think the best time to sow grass-seed is in the fall. 

 My experience has been, that I have done a great deal better 

 by sowing in the fall than in the spring. I have had good 

 crops from some of the land there that did not raise any 

 thing but stones when I bought the farm ; and the stones 

 were so piled one upon another, that it was said by one of 

 my neighbors, that I must be one of those insane men who 

 come out from the city, stay a few years, and then go back. 

 But seven years have rolled by, and I am still on that farm ; 

 and I expect, if I live, to be there seven years longer. Some 

 of my neighbors said it would cost me a thousand dollars an 

 acre to clear some of that land, and I don't know but it has. 

 I did not keep an account of the cost. A great deal of it 

 came out of my arms, and a great deal out of my rising at 

 three o'clock in the morning, and remaining out until seven or 

 eight at night, day after day, week after week. I saw there 

 was no other way but to push and persevere. I said to my- 

 self, " Get all the information you can from books and from 

 your neighbors, and then you will not succeed very well un- 

 less you put hard work into your farm." Nevertheless, I 

 have to tell jon to-day that I have a barn forty feet square ; 

 and, before I got done haying, I really thought I should be 

 obliged to build a larger barn. I did make out to get all 

 my hay in ; but it was piled clear up to the ridge-pole. I 

 have enough, unless something unforeseen happens, to keep 

 my fifteen cows and three horses without any trouble. To 

 be sure, I grain the year through. I buy my meal and shorts 

 by the car-load. I feed the shorts and the meal for two rea- 



