day, during which all he saw had discouraged him. Marston had farmed
in a singularly wasteful manner; fences and outbuildings were in very
bad repair; half the implements were useless; and it would be a long
and costly task to put things straight.

"I feel that I'll have my hands full. In fact, I'm a little worried
about it; there are so many changes that must be made."

"Sure. Where are you going to begin?"

"By getting as much summer fallowing as possible done on the second
quarter-section. The first has been growing wheat for some time; I'll
sew part of that with timothy. There's one bit of stiff land I might
put in flax. I've thought of trying corn for the silo."

"Timothy and a silo?" commented Grant.

"You're going in for stock, then? It means laying out money, and a
slow return."

"I'm afraid so. Still, you can't grow cereals year after year on this
light soil. It's a wasteful practise that will have to be abandoned,
as people here seem to be discovering. Grain won't pay at sixteen
bushels to the acre."

"A sure thing," Grant agreed. "I'm sticking right to wheat, but that's
because I'm too old to change my system, and I'm on black soil, which
holds out longer."

"But you're taking the nature out of it."