Mixed Farming. 35 



amount, was left; the rest was sown to Hungarian grass and 

 sowed corn, and rye was put in in the fall to be grown and cut 

 for hay and then plowed for Hungarian or corn. 



Of course, some help was necessary now to secure these crops, 

 and a little was hired. I felt that I was doing something that 

 would pay : that I could afford to hire some and get a profit on 

 the labor. The old barn was filled until it fairly groaned, and 

 stack after stack was put up outside. "What is the idiot, the 

 town farmer, going to do ?" was the question of the day. But he 

 kept his own counsel. "Just look at the feed he has got, and no 

 stock." Well, dairying was the main business in the neighbor- 

 hood, and farmers were apt to overstock in summer. There were 

 plenty in the winter that had more stock than feed, just as we 

 had had and others before us on this farm. I had no difficulty in 

 picking up some farrow cows in the fall cheap, on time, to feed 

 for beef, and I got some cows to winter at prices corresponding 

 fairly with what hay was selling at in market. You see, if a man 

 is out of hay he has got to buy at market price and move it home, 

 too, and I figured it would be less trouble to him to pay about the 

 same price and take his cattle to the hay. Of course, he would 

 not thus be bringing fertility onto his farm, but many farmers did 

 not think or care for this. From the very first this new departure 

 worked, and we increased it the next year. And I was getting 

 good pay for my labor in summer in raising the crops, as there 

 was money in them at market price for hay and feed, and then I 

 got paid in the winter by having a manure pile that I would not 

 have if feed was sold off the place. I was getting all the money 

 there was in growing for market, which is nearly always more 

 than can be made by feeding out regularly, and all the advan- 

 tages of feeding out with none of its drawbacks, particularly that 

 I had my whole time for work in summer. My farmer friends 

 were hard up, many of them, as well as I was, but feed was 

 always considered cash, and I must have my money, so a contract 

 was made that all bills must be paid before stock was taken away, 

 and they always were, with a single exception. One man took 

 some calves away when I was not here and cheated me out of $23. 

 He has never prospered since, and has lost his farm. 



As I worked up in this direction, additional cheap sheds were 

 built around the old barn each year ; just merely shelter, nothing 

 for looks. These stables were made very warm and comfortable. 

 I hauled the logs, and with the lumber built them myself, work- 

 ing with a will, for at last we were actually making something, 

 and in a few years more we might be our own masters. But we 

 were just as economical as ever, or very nearly so, thanks largely 

 to my wife. Would you believe it, we actually had as many as 

 fifty and sixty head of stock going comfortably through the 

 winter, not barely skinning through and "on the lift" in the 

 spring. Those three cows that the tenants skinned were the last 



