CHAPTER FIVE 



Where to Find Out How 



SOME years ago I went down the Abitibi River 

 to Hudson Bay in a canoe. Half way to Moose 

 Factory I met an employee of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, with his wife and nine-year-old daugh- 

 ter, coming "out" for their annual vacation. My 

 partner on that trip was a doctor; hence, inev- 

 itably, the conversation revealed that when the 

 factor's daughter was born the father had deliv- 

 ered her. 



"How in the world did you know what to do?" 

 the doctor asked. 



"Oh, that was nothing," the Orkney Islander 

 answered modestly. "I had a book." 



Five years later, when we put Medlock Farm 

 into production, I took a leaf from the factor's 

 book. Even though raised on it, I realized there 

 were lots of things about the land I did not know, 

 as well as that a lot of what I did know was not 

 true. But if a man could find out by reading a 

 book how to deliver his own daughter, surely there 

 could be nothing vital to successful farming that 

 could not be learned the same way. And while the 



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