100 



the whole story. It is what we, whose privilege it is to re- 

 main on our farms, must follow out during this war. We 

 must have confidence and trust, and this gives us the double 

 power of manhood. We must "plow up close to the fence 

 rows." That means utilizing waste products, and doing 

 things we have never thought of before, or changing our 

 methods in order to economize labor if we can find the right 

 thing to do. 



This is no time for a grovich or a growl. We have got 

 to come across, or the Kaiser will, and the better spirit we 

 show in going at our job. the finer our job will be. We have 

 a little girl at our house who has given us a fine example in 

 this line. She is a little thing, hardly two feet long, but sht: 

 has a very large person as bed fellow. During one of the 

 coldest nights of winter, that little thing got into the big bed, 

 kicked around a little, and then called out — "Come on, now, 

 I have got the bed all warmed up as far as I go." In 

 these war times men of our age cannot stand back and 

 frighten ourselves in considering how cold that bed must be. 

 We have simply got to warm it as far down as we go and the 

 rest of it will be provided for. 



Last fall I thought I saw how this thing was coming. 

 My boys volunteered, as I wanted them to do. A munition 

 plant took av/ay most of the rest of our workers, and I knew 

 that we must change our methods; so last August I seeded 

 every foot of ground I could in a cover crop. It went into 

 the corn, into the orchards, wherever it was possible to put 

 the seed in time. Part of it was rye alone, part of it was rye 

 and vetch. Thus the entire farm is now covered with a 

 good thick coat of grain, which has come on since the regu- 

 lar crops were harvested. 



Now I figure that the price for most of the things wo 

 raise this year will probably be above the average. Perhaps 

 not for potatoes, but for most of our other crops. If we are 

 able to obtain help, the cover crops plowed under will make 

 our land al Ithe stronger. If we cannot get this help, we 

 can obtain an income from our cover crops without expen- 



