WE PLAT THE FARM
On Monday I was out by ten o'clock, armed with a surveyor's chain.
Thompson had provided a lot of stakes, and we ran the lines, more or
less straight, in general accord with my sketch plan. We walked,
measured, estimated, and drove stakes until noon. At one o'clock we were
at it again, and by four I was fit to drop from fatigue. Farm work was
new to me, and I was soft as soft. I had, however, got the general lay
of the land, and could, by the help of the plan, talk of its future
subdivisions by numerals,--an arrangement that afterward proved definite
and convenient. We adjourned to the shade of the big black oak on the
knoll, and discussed the work in hand.
"You cannot finish the cellar before to-morrow night," I said, "because
it grows slower as it grows deeper; but that will be doing well enough.
I want you to start two teams ploughing Wednesday morning, and keep them
going every day until the frost stops them. Let Sam take the plough, and
have young Thompson follow with the subsoiler. Have them stick to this
as a regular diet until I call them off. They are to commence in the
wheat stubble where lots six and seven will be. I am going to try
alfalfa in that ground, though I am not at all sure that it will do
well, and the soil must be fitted as well as possible. After it has had
deep ploughing it is to be crossed with the disk harrow; then have it
rolled, disk it again, and then use the flat harrow until it feels as
near like an ash heap as time will permit. We must get the seed in
before September."
"We will need another team if you keep two ploughing and one on the
harrow," said Thompson.
"You are right, and that means another $400, but you shall have it. We
must not stop the ploughs for anything. Numbers 10, 11, 14, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, and much of the home lot, ought to be ploughed before snow flies.
That means about 160 acres,--80 odd days of steady work for the
ploughmen and horses. You will probably find it best to change teams
from time to time. A little variety will make it easier for them. As
soon as 6 and 7 are finished, turn the ploughs into the 40 acres which
make lots 1 to 5. All that must be seeded to pasture grass, for it will
be our feeding-ground, and we'll be late with it if we don't look sharp.
"We must have more help, by the way. That horse-and-buggy man, Judson,
is almost sure to come, and I will find another. Some of you will have
to bunk in the hay for the present, for I am going to send out a woman
to help your wife. Six men can do a lot of work, but there is a
tremendous lot of work to do. We must fit the ground and plant at least
three thousand apple trees before the end of November, and we ought to
fence this whole plantation. Speaking of fences reminds me that I must
order the cedar posts. Have you any idea how many posts it will take to
fence this farm as we have platted it? I suppose not. Well, I can tell
you. Twenty-two hundred and fifty at one rod apart, or 1850 at twenty
feet apart. These posts must be six feet above and three feet below
ground. They will cost eighteen cents each. That item will be $333, for
there are seven miles of fence, including the line fence between me and
my north neighbor. I am going to build that fence myself, and then I
shall know whose fault it is if his stock breaks through. Of course some
of the old posts are good, but I don't believe one in twenty is long
enough for my purpose."
"What do you buy cedar posts for, when you have enough better ones on
the place?" asked Thompson.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Well, down in the wood yonder there's enough dead white oak, standing
or on the ground, to make three thousand, nine-foot posts, and one
seasoned white oak will outlast two cedars, and it is twice as strong."
"Well, that's good! How much will it cost to get them out?"
"About five cents apiece. A couple of smart fellows can make good wages
at that price."
"Good. We will save thirteen cents each. They will cost $93 instead of
$333. I don't know everything yet, do I, Thompson?"
"You learn easy, I reckon."
"Keep your eyes and ears open, and if you find any one who can do this
job, let him have it, for we are going to be too busy with other things
at present. It's time for me to be off. I cannot be out again till
Thursday, for I must find a man, a woman, and a team of horses and all
that goes with them. I'll see you on the 8th at any rate."
I was dead tired when I reached home; but there wasn't a grain of
depression in my fatigue,--rather a sense of elation. I felt that for
the first time in thirty years real things were doing and I was having a
hand in them. The fatigue was the same old tire that used to come after
a hard day on my father's farm, and the sense was so suggestive of youth
that I could not help feeling younger. I have never gotten away from the
faith that the real seed of life lies hidden in the soil; that the man
who gives it a chance to germinate is a benefactor, and that things done
in connection with land are about the only real things. I have grown
younger, stronger, happier, with each year of personal contact with the
soil. I am thankful for seven years of it, and look forward to twice
seven more. I have lost the softness which nearly wilted me that 5th day
of August, and with the softness has gone twenty or thirty pounds of
useless flesh. I am hard, active, and strong for a man of sixty, and I
can do a fair day's work. To tell the truth, I prefer the moderate work
that falls to the lot of the Headman, rather than the more strenuous
life of the husbandman; but I find an infinite deal to thank the farm
for in health and physical comfort.