THE COMING OF FELICITY 275 



to every livery-barn, advertised, offered a reward, 

 and returned to South Qu'Appelle on the following 

 Sunday, but all in vain; I never saw my faithful 

 comrade of the winter any more, and for several 

 months remained dogless ; but the pigs made such 

 onslaught on the potatoes that, in hope of settling 

 the matter, I accepted Bobs from a mutual friend 

 in exchange for sixteen pounds of butter. 



When Roddy McMahon returned from the first 

 day's stoning on April 22 he said that the surface 

 of the summer-fallow was in fairly good trim, and 

 that we should seed with good luck on the next 

 day but one. However, there came hard frost and 

 bitter wind, and it was the first week in May before 

 we started to seed the summer-fallowed land. In 

 despair I started preparation for the pickling of my 

 seed-grain, although it is not wise to give the seed 

 its bath until within a few hours of seeding. 



For the cleansing and disinfecting process nearly 

 all farmers who once used blue-stone now use 

 formalin, the quantity being about two pounds to 

 sixty bushels of grain. The main object is to get 

 every seed bathed so that it becomes proof against 

 the infection and attack of smut ; and also in this 

 the last procedure before passing under the pressure 

 of the soil, much smut-ball and weed-seed of the 

 lighter kind will rise to the surface of the water, 

 and can be skimmed off and burned. Guy Mazey, 

 who had over two hundred acres to seed that year, 

 and never risks loss of time, plunged his two-bushel 

 sacks into the pickle, left them immersed for ten 

 minutes, and withdrew them, allowing the grain to 

 dry in the sack. This process saves time all round 

 and is quite permissible with perfectly clean seed ; 



