36 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



is three stookers to two binders, and they usually 

 finish within a few hours of each other, it will be 

 easily understood that the two stookers who followed 

 in the wake of the binder in the first year of my 

 farming experiment had the harvest-time of their 

 lives. . . . But wages to-day are nearly double, 

 two dollars seventy-five or three dollars with board 

 being average pay for stooking. 



My general ignorance of agriculture proved de- 

 plorable in the matter of the selection of implements. 

 I made a good start with the Massey-Harris up-to- 

 date six-foot binder-reaper ; but the principal 

 implement on a farm, especially where there remains 

 much land to be broken, is a plough ; and into this 

 booby-trap I fell headlong. Mr. McGusty was the 

 Massey-Harris agent at Fort Qu'Appelle, and in 

 duty bound to sell their implements when possible. 

 I bought the Sulkey model he recommended at 

 fifty-six dollars in good faith — later in these pages 

 it may tell its own tale. The disc cost forty-five 

 dollars. The mower and rake had been purchased, 

 but not paid for, by the first buyer, and Mr. 

 McGusty let me have them for fifty dollars. The 

 mower still does good work ; the rake was not satis- 

 factory. The seeder, a " Kentucky," I bought of 

 a neighbour, who was also its agent, for the sum of 

 one hundred and thirty dollars ; but it is wisdom to 

 buy an implement of a direct agent, and that he 

 should be within reach, because of the frequently 

 urgent matter of repairs. The hay-rack was made 

 to order at a cost of twenty-three dollars seventy, 

 which included lumber, bolts, &c., and carpenter's 

 charges. It was much too heavy and clumsy for its 

 purpose, and has been succeeded by two — one was 



