166 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



for corn and 16 for oats. I had storage room 

 and to spare, and I knew that I could get more 

 than a third of a cent out of each pound of 

 corn, and more than half a cent out of each 

 pound of oats. I recalled the story of a man 

 named Joseph who did some corn business in 

 Egypt a good many years ago, much in this line, 

 and who did well in the transaction. There was 

 no dream of fat kine in my case ; but I knew 

 something of the values of grains, and it did not 

 take a reader of riddles to show me that when 

 I could buy cheaper than I could raise, it was a 

 good time to purchase. 



As I said once before, there have been no se- 

 rious crop failures at Four Oaks, indeed, we 

 can show better than an average yield each year ; 

 but this extra corn in my cribs has given me 

 confidence in following my plan of very liberal 

 feeding. With this grain on hand I was able to 

 cut twenty acres of oats in Nos. 10 and 11 for 

 forage. This was done when the grain was in 

 the milk, and I secured about sixty tons of excel- 

 lent hay, much loved by horses. We got from 

 No. 9 a little less than twelve tons of clover, 

 alfalfa furnished forty tons ; and there was nearly 

 twenty tons of old hay left over from that origi- 

 nally purchased. With all this forage, good of 

 its kind, there was, however, no timothy or red 

 top, which is by all odds the best hay for horses. 

 I determined to remedy this lack before another 

 year. As soon as the oats were off lots 10 and 11, 



