Hiram in the Middle West : $b Or, A young farmer's upward struggleTodd, Burbank L.
General
Hiram in the Middle West : $b Or, A young farmer's upward struggle
Todd, Burbank L.
Agriculture -- Juvenile fiction; Pastoral fiction
Another team of Percherons and a double plow came to Sunnyside to help
in the plowing and oat sowing. They got on the land just as soon as
the horses would not mire. But there was much of even the higher fields
that Hiram wished might be tiled properly to make the soil more friable.
They drilled the oats and then went about the other spring
work--cleaning the stables and calf pens and drawing out all the
fertilizer the cattle had made to the early corn land. There was now
more than sixty head of young stock on the farm and Hiram intended to
grain a dozen or more for market.
But the silo was empty and most of the corn fodder had been picked over
and trampled in the cattle yards. What hay he had left Hiram needed for
the horses. It was still three months and a half till haying time, and
Sunnyside did not yield any too much hay, in any case.
The promise of the crimson clover was encouraging, however; and it
would make the earliest of pasture. Therefore he turned the cattle into
a ten-acre piece below the barns and let them graze there before the
regular pasture at the far end of the farm was grown.
The stock went pretty nearly crazy over the first few mouthfuls of
clover, bawling and running about rather than settling down to eating.
But after a few hours they spread out and went quietly to grazing.
Until mid-May they found plenty to do on this patch of fast-growing
clover; but of course Hiram could not cut that for hay. He put the plow
into it as soon as the cattle were driven to the regular pasture. They
had enriched it considerably and the roots and stubble of the clover
held plenty of nitrogen. He knew the soil was in good condition now for
corn.
The fields that had lain fallow over winter were already plowed and
planted. This year Hiram was following the local custom and planting
in the row and would use the large horse-hoes for cultivating. The
early cornfields had received during the winter a heavy dressing of
manure and all the other cornfields--save those that now had growing
wheat upon them--would either have clover sod to turn under or an
eighteen-inch growth of cowpeas.
Hiram claimed that his cornfields this year would be well enriched in
one way or another.
Mr. Bronson had returned with Lettie from Florida. He brought Lettie up
to Sunnyside in his car on several occasions; but although the girl was
chatty and kind, both to Hiram and Orrin Post, to the mind of the first
named there was something lacking in her manner. She seemed bored and
dissatisfied. In her usual frank fashion Miss Pringle commented upon
the change in Lettie since she had first met her.
"Land's sake, Hiram! that girl is certainly getting her nose in the
air. Not that I mean she's spoiled, but she ain't the same as she was.
This taking her around from one flashy place to another is making her a
regular flibbertigibbet."
"Whatever that is," laughed Hiram.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account