24 TOM’S EXPERIENCE 
winter; or, what is worse, spend the time loating 
at some store, grocery or tavern, when there is no end 
of things he might be doing which would add so much 
to the convenience, as ‘well as beauty, of his home, 
and greatly lighten the labors of his wife and family. 
Such men seem to think that when the crops are 
raised and cared for, their year’s work is done, and 
that they have nothing whatever to do with making 
the home convenient, comfortable and beautiful. I 
have a great contempt for such men, and always pity 
their wives and children. 
SPRING WORK. 
With the opening of the spring (1880), I went 
vigorously to work putting in my crops. I put 45 
acres in wheat, 30 1 in oats, and 15 in corn. I hired 
help enough to do this work in good time, and to do 
it well. [I want no ‘‘slouching” in such work. In 
fact, [don’t want it in any kind of work, and it is 
the poorest possible economy to try to save time and 
labor in sowing and planting one’s crops. I think 
most of the poor crops we hear of in Dakota are due 
to poor farming. Of course, drouth and wet weather 
will injure crops in any case, but they are always 
much less injurious to fields that have been well-tilled 
than to those that have been poorly cultivated. It is 
especially true on a farm that whatever is worth do- 
ing at all, is worth doing well. 
THE SUMMER'S CROPS. | 
' As soon as my crops were planted I went to work 
