In this connection, however, Hiram had something to learn, too. This land was not so cursed with weeds as that he had been used to cultivating farther East. There was no twitch-grass, wild mustard, or purslane. After many years of deep plowing and crop rotation, the fields of this part of the corn-belt were comparatively free of weeds. Only on land that had been allowed to lie fallow were the weeds a pest. The fields of Sunnyside Farm must be greatly improved before Hiram could, however, take up the local methods of corn growing in every particular. He knew of no improving crop better suited to his needs than crimson clover. It is rich in nitrogen, makes a heavy crop of hay before corn-planting time, and it could be sowed at the last cultivation of the present corn crop. The drawback was that it necessitated the cutting of the corn to the ground and the removal of the shocks from the field. On the better farms near by the corn was allowed to cure on the standing stalk and then the cattle and hogs were turned in to graze on the fodder, the stalks being knocked down and cut up by the disc harrow before plowing in the spring. That was another method Hiram could not adopt. If his clover catch was worth anything at all he did not want the corn stalks mixed with it at hay-making time. He talked the matter over with Mr. Bronson, and a machine was secured at harvesting time that, drawn by one of the Percherons, went through the field cutting two rows of corn at a time and giving the two men working with it all they could do shocking the corn at proper intervals. This corn finished curing in the shock and the husking was done at the barn where the fodder was stacked against the increasing need of the herd of young stock that Mr. Bronson was continually adding to. This method of harvesting cost more in time and labor than Hiram could have desired; but it left his fields clean and gave the young clover a better chance. The corn he had obtained from Daniel Brown proved to be all that Hiram had hoped it would be. That which he had raised for seed was so evenly matured and sound in the ear that Mr. Bronson admitted it was by far the most satisfactory variety Hiram had tried. And how it did mount up in the cribs with its glossy red and yellow grains! The wheat thrashing had yielded Hiram not more than sixteen to eighteen bushels to the acre--scarcely a paying investment. But it was all profit for Mr. Bronson, as the crop had been planted when he bought the farm. Hiram knew well enough where the fault lay. The land was not strong enough for wheat, and he proposed to plant but a small acreage to that grain for the next season. "Oats will pay us better, I believe. Some of this upland can be plowed early in the spring, and as soon as the oats are off we'll disc and put in cowpeas, turning them under for the corn crop." "Ow!" ejaculated his employer, "do you mean to plow under both the oat stubble and the peas for the corn?"