82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



waste places and to correcting the mistakes of their 

 forefathers. 



Having generalized somewhat on soil robbery 

 and soil renaisscence, it is time to return to farm 

 details in Central New York. For many years 

 there were two weeds which caused great annoy- 

 ance and incessant labor to keep in check. As soon 

 as the fields were cleared the Canada thistle 

 carvinces found a foothold and, the land being 

 rich and mellow, it required great persistency to 

 keep it in check. The usual rotation was corn or 

 fallow, oats, barley or flax, then wheat; clover for 

 one year and for pasture one. This was followed 

 by a three-to-five-plowing summer fallow, if the 

 thistles were scattered over most of the field; if 

 they were in restricted patches, these were plowed 

 frequently during the year the field was in pasture, 

 thus to a great extent avoiding an idle year. 



Even with all these precautions some thistles 

 would appear in the grain and the sheaves of wheat 

 had to be touched most gingerly; and, fight as 

 steadily as we might, they were never wholly eradi- 

 cated. In those days I used to feel, while cuffing 

 the soil back and forth with an imperfect plow 

 so many times during those long summer days, 

 that I was the particular victim of the pestiferous 



