60 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



two dollars and ten cents an acre. Counting 

 only his own labor at one dollar a day, and say- 

 ing nothing of the "keep" of his team or the 

 cost of thrashing, that wheat crop spelled a 

 net loss. His corn gave him twelve bushels to 

 the acre six bushels for his share. His own 

 labor on the crop at a dollar a day more than 

 ate it up, to say nothing of the time of his 

 mules and his wife and kids. 



That didn't appear very satisfactory to us. 

 And only occasionally, as we rode around the 

 country that summer, did we see a farm that 

 was making a much better showing. Shiftless- 

 ness might account for some of this, but it 

 wasn't the only nor even the chief explanation. 

 Nine-tenths of the farmers working within 

 rifle shot of the agricultural college were doing 

 no thinking, making no plans for any improve- 

 ment in their methods. Some of them knew 

 much better, but they stuck to the outworn old 

 ways stubbornly. An ox in a treadmill is no 

 more a victim of routine than these workers 

 seemed to be. 



One day I repeated to our professor-friend 

 the impression I'd received when I first looked 

 on at our own tenant's work that I felt as 



