"A hundred tractors won't put back into the soil the fertility that one horse will," the young farmer said. "That is sure. Soiling crops are all right. But in the end, the only farms run by tractor power that are not going to be injured beyond repair are the dairy farms. And I believe the easiest and quickest way to get this half run-down farm into shape is by putting cattle on it." "Young stock--yes. I agree with you that can be done at once. In fact," said Mr. Bronson, "I should not be surprised if I could pick up a score of head of stock to send up here within the week from my other farms." "Good! That will be a beginning. But two score will be better. Pasture them later if the pasture is any good here." "There is good pasture and the fences are in good condition. I looked them over before I bought the place." "All right, sir. You agree with me, then, that we should aim in the end to make Sunnyside a dairy farm?" "That seems to be the idea, Hiram. I fancy you are right." "That being the case, Mr. Bronson, there is one thing you must do. There is only one really profitable way to feed dairy cattle. That is from the silo." "Oh! Oh! Hiram, you hurt!" exclaimed his employer, and his smile was very rueful. "Do you realize that any kind of silo runs into money?" "Yes, sir. But it will cost you less to put up a silo now, while you have workmen on the place building your house, than at a later time. If you are going to make Sunnyside fertile, you must have cattle; if you are going to feed cattle cheaply you must cut your corn green and shred it and blow it into the silo. It is the safest and the cheapest way." "I suppose I have got to admit all you say as true. But your suggestions, are all expensive. The first outlay will be enormous. Here you want to tile that twenty acres of upland. And goodness knows what you may want to do with some of the lowland." "Make it grow good crops--bumper crops if possible--that is all," said Hiram smiling. "And about that twenty acres along the county road that is now in wheat--" "Well?" "I've an idea about underdraining that! but I won't tell you what it is until I have looked over the ground a little. I am convinced that that particular piece should be as fertile as any acreage around here." "It never has been, they tell me." "That is no reason why we shouldn't make it the best, is it?" and the young farmer laughed again. CHAPTER VII SEED TESTING By evening of his first day on Sunnyside Farm Hiram Strong was comfortably established in the incubator shed and prepared to keep house after a fashion. Mr. Bronson supplied him with the requisites for a home on the limited plan Hiram intended to follow. The young farmer believed, however, that Miss Delia Pringle really would have taken him to board had he not been so firm in his stand for independence.