20 My Little Farm 



of the field cropping can be inferred from the area 

 and the stock carried, but I may mention the rate 

 of production per acre in a few of the heavier 

 items: Mangolds, 50 tons; potatoes, 12 tons; 

 hay (in two cuttings), 3 to 4 tons ; and oats at a 

 like rate ; but, having ceased to thresh, I cannot 

 give the quantities in grain and straw. It isjall 

 eaten unthreshed, and seems to make very good 

 fodder, particularly for the young bulls, which 

 have so far come out specially healthy and fertile. 

 There is a chapter in Section III on the very 

 important business of rearing and treating young 

 bulls to assure their fertility. I once threshed 

 the oats, but other people took the grain, 

 and the straw was left to me. That manner of 

 distribution did not appeal to me, and there was 

 much anger when I stopped threshing, which was 

 regarded as a selfish attack on the vested rights of 

 those who had stolen my kernal and left me the 

 husk. In such a perfect habitat for the blight 

 parasite, I have ceased to grow potatoes, except 

 earlies and for home use. I prefer products which 

 can flourish the more in the conditions which kill 

 the potato. I do not think a man's working time 

 is worth sixpence a day growing potatoes with the 

 spade and cooking them to feed for bacon, but that 

 is how most of my neighbours spend their working 

 time. Yet when they come to work for me, at 

 six or seven times as much per day as their work 

 is worth to them at home, they invariably insist 

 that they come only " to oblige me." In my 

 fourteen years, there is not one such " obligation " 



