28 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



with disc and harrow. And if you want a par- 

 ticularly impressive specimen of what the Canadian 

 prairie can produce in the form of weed on a large 

 scale, you have only to walk to the forty-acre field 

 on the south-east corner of this farm." 



" I have been there this afternoon," I said. " It is 

 even lovelier than the wheat-field." 



" You will be having an awful mess there next 

 year if you are not very careful," he said seriously. 



" What do you mean ? " I asked. 



" We don't deprive ourselves of the use of a third, 

 or even a fourth, of our crop-land every year in 

 order to grow wild-flower gardens," he answered. 

 " I broke that forty acres myself. When I first 

 came to this country I hired on with Alan McLeay 

 for a year. It is a beautiful field, and it is a shame 

 that it is in its present condition in so short a time ; 

 but, as you may have heard, the farm was sold to an 

 Englishman two years ago. He knew very little of 

 farming, and in any case he had no money to farm 

 with. The old man went to his other place up 

 north, and the farm got into a pretty dirty condition ; 

 and although he took possession again in time to 

 claim the harvest, the weed had got badly ahead. 

 Last year they managed to get the greater part 

 of this big field twice ploughed and well worked, 

 and so knocked out a good many of the wild oats. 

 But they are there still, and badly in places. I 

 should recommend you not to sow a stubble crop 

 next year, but leave it fallow and work it well. 

 Then in 1907 you could expect to get as fine a crop 

 as this year, and quite free from wild oats." 



" But that would only leave the forty acres for 

 crop-land," I objected. 



