Thompson told me that he had found two woodsmen (by scouting around on Sunday) who were glad to take the job of cutting the white-oak posts at five cents each, and that they were even then at work; and that Nos. 6 and 7 would be fitted for alfalfa by the end of the week.  He added that the seed ought to be sown as soon thereafter as possible and that a liberal dressing of commercial fertilizer should be sown before the seed was harrowed in.

“I have ordered five tons of fertilizer,” I said, “and it ought to be here this week.  Sow four bags to the acre.”

“Four bags,—­eight hundred pounds; that’s pretty expensive.  Costs, I suppose, $35 to $40 a ton.”

“No; $24.”

“How’s that?”

“Friend at court; factory price; $120 for five tons; $5 freight, making in all $125.  We must use at least eight hundred pounds this fall and five hundred in the spring.  Alfalfa is an experiment, and we must give it a show.”

“Never saw anything done with alfalfa in this region, but they never took no pains with it,” said Thompson.

“I hope it will grow for us, for it is great forage if properly managed.  The seed will be out this week, and you had best sow it on Monday, the 2d.”

“How are you going to seed the north forty?”

“Timothy, red top, and blue grass; heavy seeding, to get rid of the weeds.  These lots will all be used as stock lots.  Small ones, you think, but we will depend almost entirely upon soiling.  I hope to keep a fair sod on these lots, and they will be large enough to give the animals exercise and keep them healthy.  I hope the carpenter is pushing things on the house.  I want to get you into better quarters as soon as possible, and I want the cottage moved out of the way before we seed the lot.”

“They’re pushing things all right, I guess; that man Nelson is a hustler.”

When I reached the farm I found Johnson and Anderson tearing down the old fence that was our eastern boundary.  None of the posts were long enough for my purpose, so all were consigned to the woodpile.

My neighbor on the north owned just as much land as I did.  He inherited it and a moderate bank account from his father, who in turn had it from his.  The farm was well kept and productive.  The house and barns were substantial and in good repair.  The owner did general farming, raised wheat, corn, and oats to sell, milked twenty cows and sent the milk to the creamery, sold one or two cows and a dozen calves each year, and fattened twenty or thirty pigs.  He was pretty certain to add a few hundred dollars to his bank account at the end of each season.  He kept one man all the time and two in summer.  He was a bachelor of twenty-eight, well liked and good to look upon:  five feet ten inches in height, broad of shoulder, deep of chest, and a very Hercules in strength.  His face was handsome, square-jawed and strong.  He was good-natured, but easily roused,