"If you want corn--real corn," the young fellow told him. "This land is poverty stricken. And give me all the cattle you can find, Mr. Bronson. I'll manage to feed them somehow or other." The ensilage crop demanded his attention and the labor of all the hands for the better part of a week. Even Mr. Turner had been forced to confess that _something_ had happened to that twenty acres of Sunnyside along the county road that heretofore had yielded such poor crops. Since Hiram's underdraining scheme had gone into effect the soil seemed entirely different. The corn and cowpeas had grown like a rank swamp. When cut and carted to the shredder it was so heavy it was all a man could do to lift a forkful. It was not particularly hard to load the wagon in the field; getting the ensilage off the cart was the more difficult part of the job. A brief experience taught the young farm manager something. He unhung the wagon and put the low wheels behind and the big wheels in front. With side racks spread at a wide angle and chains front and rear to hold the racks, they were enabled to pile an enormous load upon the sloping wagon body. The Percherons could pull all the ensilage the men could pile on. When drawn to the shredder all that was needed was to unfasten the chains at front and rear and draw the wagon out from under the load. This was quick work and kept the crew at the shredder busy all the time. The ensilage was blown into the silo as rapidly as it was shredded, and at the end of the week the huge tank was filled. Hiram at once had the twenty-acre piece broadcasted with stable manure, and as the heavy crop of corn and peas had kept the soil comparatively moist it was plowed much easier than might have been expected after the August drought. At wheat planting Hiram used a good fertilizer in the drill and set the sprouts to run about a bushel and a half rather than a bushel and a peck to the acre. This he did save on the lower four acres next to Yancey Battick's place. This patch was considered by both Mr. Bronson and Battick the best soil for experiment with the new wheat, and Battick planted the wonderful new grain himself, using a hand-sower and sowing only three pecks to the acre. The new wheat plant proved to stool so heavily that Battick claimed the field would be quite as well covered in the spring as the rest of the twenty acres. Hiram had observed the stooling property of the new wheat; but he had some doubt about its being well to sow the grain so thinly. He feared it would not furnish sufficient protection for the ground. But as this crop was for seed rather than for bulk of grain, it might be all right. In any case the young farmer watched the experiment with much interest.