VIII 



THE DAY OF RECKONING 

 — AUF WIEDERSEHEN 



I HAD turned the corner of 1906 with a big deficit 

 on the account of my working expenses. In 1907 

 I took less than five hundred dollars for my wheat, 

 pigs, and butter in cash ; but I had sold a great 

 deal of meat and butter and eggs to my neighbour, 

 although I had to purchase of him oats for my 

 horses as I was insufficiently supplied. My working 

 expenses for 1907 amounted to just over one thousand 

 and fifty dollars. It must not be forgotten that this 

 is the story of an individual working out an experi- 

 ment with very little knowledge and insufficient 

 capital. Had I, instead of breaking up more land, 

 put every cent of available money into cattle and 

 pigs and a good poultry-house, I should have made 

 much money in a comparatively short space of 

 time. But I arrived in Canada in one of its most 

 glorious wheat seasons ; cattle and pigs were scorned 

 as money-makers in 1905 and 1906; to-day it is 

 difficult to buy them for money. Again, although 

 in 1906 I did badly owing to the unprepared seed- 

 bed and the harvest of wild oats, it was, generally 

 speaking, a brilliant season in the prairie provinces ; 

 and if the disastrous season of 1907 was badly felt, 

 its lesson was very badly needed. 



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