INTRODUCTION. 27 
with her, and when the women of the house went out 
to see they found the old man lying in the wagon 
as though peacefully sleeping, with a half smile on 
his lips, dead. It was a fitting end. He had lived a 
strenuous life, he had been good, he had been kind; 
he had been builder not destroyer, and wherever his 
foot had been put down there rich grasses and 
clovers had sprung up. 
The writer makes no pretense of being as good or 
eareful a farmer as his father was. We try to fol- 
low in his footsteps, that is all, and we do things in 
a larger way than he in his old age eared to do them. 
Yes, the father was gone, and with him the safe 
counselor, and the boy all at once realized how much 
he had depended upon this counsel. He could do 
as he pleased now, but he was not glad of the chance. 
He would have been very glad indeed if he could 
have had the continued company of the old father. 
He took account of stock. The farm was not pay- 
ing; the crops that grew upon it when all sold could 
not possibly bring money enough to make it a busi- 
ness worth while. Much of the land was too poor 
to be profitable. The little alfalfa fields paid well, 
but they were but small spaces after all; the rest of 
the farm was mostly unfit for alfalfa. The farm 
needed enriching, needed further drainage. If ever 
it paid it must be made rich. How? Well, there 
was stable manure. The boy knew about that; the 
old father had been a most careful user of manure; 
he saved all that he could, but he fed his cattle out 
in the woods where the manure was largely wasted. 
