OLD HOMESTEAD 



our debts and mortgages when due, and had plenty of every- 

 thing we needed — at least thought so — and were satisfied. 

 " He is never poor 

 That little hath, but he that much desires." 



But I must not leave my work to talk theories; that has 

 beaten many a man besides the farmer. We plowed the fer- 

 tilizer under and got good grass and a sure seeding. Hauling 

 manure was hard work for the team, as we loaded heavily, and 

 the narrow-tired wagon would cut into the wet, clay soil, making 

 great, deep ruts, which soon required taking a new track. The 

 drawing was, largely, to the upper meadow — all up-hill work. 

 It took several days' work of a team and two men, and was 

 sometimes hurried by borrowing a neighbor's wagon and having 

 one loaded while the other went to the field. 



There was muck on the farm, but we did not use it to any 

 extent. That we were not in great need of fertilizer and did 

 not, perhaps, realize its value, is pretty strongly shown by the 

 fact that the farm in its early days had the refuse heaps of two 

 extensive potash establishments, one of which, after seventy-five 

 years of abandonment, is just being utilized. The purchase or 

 use of fertilizer other than that made on the farm was not 

 thought of. 



When hay was stacked out, or when it was so plenty that it 

 was thought desirable to feed and waste as much as possible, we 

 used to feed some of it on the frozen ground and snow, in the 

 meadows adjacent to the barns. The cattle would eat more in 

 the open air, where they could drive and hustle one another 

 around — just like mankind, each trying to rob the other and 

 get the whole of it himself. The feeding ground was changed 

 about, so that as large an area as possible would be enriched. 

 The manure thus scattered would certainly not have to be 



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