158 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



to put in ten full hours a day on the land in Canada, 

 and to groom and feed his team of four horses. 

 Meals are set in the unwritten law at 6 a.m., 12 

 noon, and 6 p.m. ; but it is far better for beasts 

 and men to delay the evening meal in order to 

 allow at least an hour and a half for the midday 

 rest. 



The wheat-field was seeded in six days, and, fol- 

 lowing the advice of Roddy McMahon, I had the 

 fifteen acres which had received some vague atten- 

 tion from the plough in the preceding year, 

 spring-ploughed, disced, and harrowed, and there 

 we sowed oats. 



" The other twenty-five acres of that dirty land 

 must be twice ploughed, I guess," he continued. 

 " It should be ploughed shallow right now to give 

 the surface seed a start, then when the weed comes 

 up good and thick we can turn it all in with the 

 plough. Guess you would like me to be getting 

 on with some fresh breaking. There's some good 

 chunks of land left to break up yet on this farm, 

 Only I guess you will have to be sending Hardwick 

 up with the pickaxe to get busy on the stones. 

 It don't pay to keep stopping the plough to pick 

 out those fellows ! " 



" I have found a patch of land on the far side of 

 the pasture," I said, " and there I think you will 

 get in more than twenty acres of level breaking. 

 Of course, you mustn't stop to get out the stones ; 

 I quite understand. I'll come and show you the 

 land I mean.'* 



" I guess it's quite a piece," he agreed, as we 

 examined a stretch of unbroken prairie immediately 

 behind the forty-acre pasture. " Maybe I had 



