262 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



the tremendous incentive of being complete in 

 detail ; every basinful of wheat that went into the 

 grain bag, every teacupful of weed that went into 

 the fire, meant health and strength for the crops of 

 1907 and its ensuing crops. Of course there were 

 moments when I had to acknowledge that it was 

 absolutely impossible to get through, when my back 

 and head and hands and heart ached, but deliverance 

 came in the middle of March. 



My brother arrived from his homestead on the 

 6th and remained until the loth. He told me 

 that a man had passed the night at his stopping- 

 house who held the agency for a fanning mill which 

 he guaranteed would separate wild oats from wheat. 

 He promised to write to ask him to call on me with 

 a specimen of the mill, and said he should tell him 

 no better sample of grain could be found in the 

 country for the advertisement of the purpose of the 

 mill. 



The man and the mill arrived in due course. 

 He remained overnight, and the next day he set 

 up the mill in the granary and extracted the wild 

 oats from the wheat in a manner which seemed 

 amazing as it practically removed every wild oat 

 from the seed-grain. Freely I gave the twenty-six 

 dollars which he demanded for the treasure, and 

 through two seasons it did good although very slow 

 service ; but always there was a great deal of waste, 

 partly through the milled wheat which fell under, 

 but also of an important percentage of the very 

 finest grain, which passed out at the back of the 

 mill with the wild oats. Later it became slower 

 and more wasteful, and it was then that the lack of 

 judgment in buying farm implements from a 



