“We’ve done for most of them this time,” said Thompson, “but we’ll have to go over the ground again by Monday.”

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 open.  By August 24 about two hundred loads of manure from the barn-yards, the accumulation of years, had been spread under the apple trees, and I felt sure it was well bestowed.  Manuring, turning the sod, pruning, and spraying, ought to give a good crop of fruit next year.

We had several days of rain during this time, which interfered somewhat with the work, but the rains were gratefully received.  I spent much of my time at Four Oaks, often going every day, and never let more than two days pass without spending some hours on the farm.  To many of my friends this seemed a waste of time.  They said, “Williams is carrying this fad too far,—­spending too much time on it.”