The next piece of work was to clear the north forty (lots 1 to 5) of all
fences, stumps, stones, and rubbish, and all buildings except the
cottage. The barn was to be torn down, and the horses were to be
temporarily stabled in the old barn on the home lot. Useful timbers and
lumber were to be snugly piled, the manure around the barns was to be
spread under the old apple trees, which were in lot No. 1, and
everything not useful was to be burned. "Make a clean sweep, and leave
it as bare as your hand," I told Thompson. "It must be ready for the
plough as soon as possible."

Judson, the man with the buggy, reported at noon. He came with bag and
baggage, but not with buggy, and said that he came to stay.

"Thompson," said I, "you are to put Judson in charge of the roan team to
follow the boys when they are far enough ahead of him. In the meantime
he and the team will be with you and Johnson in this house-cleaning. By
to-morrow night Anderson and the new team will get in, and they, too,
will help on this job. I want you to take personal charge of the gray
team,--neither Johnson nor Anderson is the right sort to handle horses.
The new team will do the trucking about and the regular farm work, while
the other three are kept steadily at the ploughs and harrows."

The cleaning of the north forty proved a long job. Four men and two
teams worked hard for ten days, and then it was not finished. By that
time the ploughmen had finished 6 and 7, and were ready to begin on No.
1. Judson, with the roans and harrows, was sent to the twenty acres of
ploughed ground, and Zeb and his team were put at the cleaning for three
days, while Sam ploughed the six acres of old orchard with a
_shallow-set_ plough. The feeding roots of these trees would have been
seriously injured if we had followed the deep ploughing practised in the