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 1 907 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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