Clearing of Trees, Stumps and Stones. 59 



When the timber was finally all off, the land was used for 

 pasture for four or five 'years, while waiting for the small stumps 

 to rot out and the smaller roots on the larger ones to decay so 

 they could be taken out more readily. Our land naturally comes 

 into blue grass, and this soon became good pasture. During these 

 years, whenever there w r as a day to spare, or a wet time prevented 

 our doing other work, we were do\vn there piling or burning the 

 logs and such stumps as would come out. There were many old 

 ones, as much timber had been cut previously, and there were a 

 great many logs, as in the early days they only used the best of 

 the timber and left much on the ground. A great deal of work 

 was done on this lot, but the cost as we managed was practically 

 nothing. At last we thought the time had come to strike. Along 

 in August I had two good men by the month, and we had two 

 weeks of very wet weather, when we could not work at our other 

 farm work, and we began cleaning out these stumps in earnest. 

 We made such headway that I was encouraged to try and finish 

 the piece that winter, ready for the plow the next year. A young 

 man of great strength had been at work for me for some months, 

 and W 7 as very anxious to stay all winter. He wanted me to un- 

 dertake the job and keep him, and he offered to work a year for 

 a price not very much in advance of what he could get for eight 

 months. This was a new departure for us, but we dared to go 

 into it. One writer sneered at us in the papers in regard to this 

 transaction, as cheating the poor hired man, or getting work out 

 him for little or nothing. But he should remember that we were 

 very poor and did not know how our venture would come out, 

 and the young man desired to stay and have a home through the 

 winter, and further, that before he left us finally, and after we 

 were more on our feet, that we made him a present of $75 in 

 cash, beside paying him what he had gladly agreed to work for 

 that year $25 a month and board, if I remember correctly. 

 Many a time have wife and I said to each other that if we ever 

 had anything of our own we wanted to feel that we had not 

 wronged anyone else, particularly our men, in order to get it. In 

 the matter of prices paid for labor, we have usually got good men 

 only, and paid them rather more than they could get elsewhere, 

 purposely, and kept the matter still so it would not make trouble 

 with the hired men of neighbors. 



Well, this strong young man, who just loved real hard work, 

 began on the stumps as soon as the fall work was over. We got 

 out the smaller ones first. They came easy and fast, being pretty 

 well rotted. They were mostly beech. The large oaks were in 

 very different shape. Around them, during the early winter, we 

 dug out the earth, exposing the roots, and then my man chopped 

 these roots off. At the outer end they were cut far enough off so 

 what was left would be entirely below the plow. Then they were 

 cut as closely under the stump as possible. After this process 



