"I feel that I'll have my hands full. In fact, I'm a little worried about it; there are so many changes that must be made."
"Sure. Where are you going to begin?"
"By getting as much summer fallowing as possible done on the second quarter-section. The first has been growing wheat for some time; I'll sew part of that with timothy. There's one bit of stiff land I might put in flax. I've thought of trying corn for the silo."
"Timothy and a silo?" commented Grant.
"You're going in for stock, then? It means laying out money, and a slow return."
"I'm afraid so. Still, you can't grow cereals year after year on this light soil. It's a wasteful practise that will have to be abandoned, as people here seem to be discovering. Grain won't pay at sixteen bushels to the acre."
"A sure thing," Grant agreed. "I'm sticking right to wheat, but that's because I'm too old to change my system, and I'm on black soil, which holds out longer."
"But you're taking the nature out of it."
"It will see me through if I fallow," said Grant. "When I've done with it and sell out, somebody else can experiment with mixed crops and stock-raising. That's going to become the general plan, but it's costly at the beginning." Then he rose. "I'll walk round the place with you."
They went out, and the girl fell behind with Edgar. He had learned that her name was Flora.