18 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
meadow and pasture land, with a fine bit of wood- 
land, and about 50 acres part of the time under the 
plow. It was farmed in the old-fashioned way— 
corn followed by wheat and wheat by clover and 
timothy. Hogs were kept and cattle; timothy hay 
was sold with wheat, pigs, fat steers, potatoes, 
parsnips, pears, grapes and a few minor items. The 
father was a careful man, economical to a degree, 
hard working and patient. He loved his land and 
cared for it as best he could, saving every scrap of 
manure and tilling the soil with diligence. He loved 
his animals and fed them well. His driving mare 
was almost too wide to get between the shafts; his 
cattle knew him and would stand to be rubbed and 
petted. It was through no lack of industry or in- 
telligence that the father had not of late years made 
the farm pay; it was due mainly to his following an 
unprofitable system of farming. 
When the boy came home there was an old lame 
negro man helping do the farm work, old ‘‘Uncle 
Sam’’ they called him, a faithful old soul but slow 
and feeble. In the feedlot were about eight steers, 
maybe twenty pigs were being fattened, in the crib 
probably 500 bushels of corn, in the mows maybe 50 
tons of hay. The boy took it all in very rapidly 
and a great hunger for the old ranch came over him, 
a hunger and a longing for its wide free life and 
its endless range of activities. To add to his unrest 
a letter followed him, a letter from the manager. It 
read like this: ‘‘Come back, Joe, as soon as you 
ean. Your place is awaiting you, and more wages if 
