Mixed Farming. 31 



There were 70 acres of bottom pasture that we must have young 

 stock to put on, and our only way of getting them seemed to be to 

 raise them, and we pushed the matter this first season and after- 

 wards. But, oh, the endless amount of hard work it put on us 

 in proportion to the pay received! In the morning we would 

 milk the cows and hitch up and take the milk to spring house 

 and set it, and then skim the milk that had stood for 24 hours 

 and take it back to house, warm it, or make hot porridge of oil- 

 meal and wheat middlings, and mix that with the milk to warm 

 it to blood heat. We were very particular about this work, and 

 the calves showed it. Then, after a pull at calf feeding, we ate 

 our own breakfast. I think it was often 9 o'clock before we got 

 through. Then I rushed off to my day's work, and worked hard 

 until dark yes, in summer, and then went through the milk- 

 and-calf performance again. Wife often milked most of the cows 

 before I got around, with the little children by her side. She 

 also w r ent to the spring and made the butter, while the babies 

 played in the shade .near by or slept or squalled, as. they hap- 

 pened to feel like. Then we got our supper and tumbled into 

 bed, totally exhausted. Of course, we had no business to work 

 like this. It was wrong; but what better could we do under the 

 circumstances? I am giving facts, however. There were plenty 

 of other farmers who worked like this then, and I can point you 

 to some to-day who, in their ambition to succeed and because 

 they are very hard up, are simply making slaves of themselves. 

 We could not hire a man to help do this work no, not in the 

 way we were then working. A good old neighbor, who was 

 always very kind to us, said we could not afford any regular 

 help; that it would sink us, and, I think, he was right. Why, 

 friends, our cash sales the first year were only $300, and that 

 wouldn't much more than pay our interest and taxes. You must 

 remember that cows, wintered as they necessarily were, and fed on 

 poor pasture the next season, couldn't do much, and land that 

 produced almost nothing the year before could not improve much 

 in a single season. No, we struggled on alone. It was wisest 

 then. As my neighbor said, " Do what you can yourself, and let 

 the rest go." This we did, and nearly killed ourselves in trying 

 to not let anything go. We paid out that first season only one 

 dollar for help. That was wisely expended in hiring a young 

 man to help me get in a lot of hay that I cut on shares for a 

 neighbor. I actually pitched off loads of hay onto the barn floor, 

 driving up side of the doors when I was in a hurry in the after- 

 noon, and then carried them up a ladder, one forkful at a time, in 

 the morning, or rainy days, and mowed them away. Those were 

 hard days.- We never lacked enough of something to eat, but 

 fresh meat and fruit, with the exception of apples when we had 

 them, and luxuries were not for us. We spent absolutely nothing 

 the first few years for anything to wear. We were fairly well 



