CHAPTER XXVII 



WORK ON THE HOME FORTY 



APRIL and May made amends for the rudeness 

 of March, and the ploughs were early afield. 

 Thompson, Zeb, Johnson, and sometimes Ander- 

 son, followed the furrows, first in 10 and 11, and 

 lastly in 13. Number 9 had a fair clover sod, 

 and was not disturbed. We ploughed in all 

 about 114 acres, but we did not subsoil. We 

 spent twenty days ploughing and as many more 

 in fitting the ground for seed. The weather was 

 unusually warm for the season, and there was 

 plenty of rain. By the middle of May, oats 

 were showing green in Nos. 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13, 

 sixty-two acres. The corn was well planted 

 in 15 and the west three-quarters of 14, eighty- 

 two acres. The other ten acres in the young 

 orchard was planted to fodder corn, sown in 

 drills so that it could be cultivated in one 

 direction. 



The ten-acre orchard on the south side of the 

 home lot was used for potatoes, sugar beets, 

 cabbages, turnips, etc., to furnish a winter supply 

 of vegetables for the stock. 



The outlook for alfalfa was not bright. In 

 the early spring we fertilized it again, using 



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