42 Soiling. 



kets, and finally washed into the sea, and this is 

 how it happened that, as I said in the beginning, 

 "the number of cattle had been reduced by half, 

 and the flock of sheep had disappeared entirely." 



"And is this what they call farming-?" I asked 

 myself. " Is this the most independent life that a 

 man can lead? " It seemed to me that this sort of 

 thing was mere drudgery, and of all things the most 

 dependent life a man could lead. I was simply 

 working for my board and clothes, and running in 

 debt for the latter on a farm of 127 acres, worth at 

 that time $125 an acre, representing an investment 

 of $15,875. "Is this the most healthful occupation 

 a man can lead? " It looked to me to be a short cut 

 to a premature grave. Was this the calling that all 

 other men envied, and the source of wealth? It 

 looked to me as if selling peanuts on the street 

 corner at a profit was much more enjoyable. 



It seemed to me as if there was more independ- 

 ence in a ten-acre clearing full of stumps where 

 wheat could be grown at a profit, than in a 127-acre 

 farm where it was grown at a loss. 



In making this general survey of the situation, I 

 came to the conclusion that the only way of redeem- 

 ing the fertility of the soil was the proper application 

 of barnyard manure. Commercial fertilizers were 

 not the fashion at that time ; even if they had been, 

 their purchase was hardly to be considered, for some 

 of my neighbors who had tried them in gravelly soil 

 said that they did not pay. The farm was four miles 

 from town, so that the purchase of stable manure was 



