38 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



tional weight for the horses, and saves foot-weariness 

 and foot-wear, besides ensuring more faithful service 

 to the land. I managed with a home-made stone- 

 boat, and also a home-made wood-bucking board for 

 some time, at a great cost of energy, patience, and 

 unstoned land. It is wisdom in purchasing a ready- 

 made farm to engage a good carpenter for a day or 

 so to put all implements in order, and supply such 

 chattels as are absolutely necessary for economy of 

 time and energy. 



The total cost of my original outlay in implements 

 and chattels amounted to nearly one hundred and 

 fifty pounds. This included the cost of buggy and 

 harness which my brother had purchased for his 

 homestead at about nineteen pounds, and also the 

 second wagon, which was useful but not indis- 

 pensable. There was also the cost of binder-twine, 

 thirty-six dollars, and an account from the local 

 iron stores for such items as brooms and buckets, 

 grain-shovel, spades, forks, rakes, barrels, halters, 

 and those items of stable equipment which are 

 absolutely indispensable, and the cost of which 

 always seems inconsiderable ; but its sum demands 

 a distinct place in the consideration of capital 

 adequate to secure the success of agricultural 

 experiment within reasonable time. 



When all the sheaves were safely in stook, " the 

 Great Boaster " spent a day in repairing the stable 

 roof. At the end of the day my brother told me 

 that he thought he was anxious to stay on, but that 

 he would want at least two dollars a day after that 

 week, and that he feared I should find farming a very 

 expensive occupation. Between the serious dilemma 

 of the unploughed summer fallow, the ungathered 



