The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1916-02-17

Y Harper & Brothers.
knife. cut a God sized bundle Of young
! sprouts and tied them together. max.
ing a >tiT broom With this he began
to sweep leaves. and it worked adj
mirably
Link, You take this broom and
sweep these leaves in piles Make one
about every thirty feet TN be back
shortly"
Leaving Link at work. Joe hustled
| past his father and soon returned from
| the barn with four large oat sacks
| Link had several good sized piles OF
leaves ready. Joe held two sacks ana
made Link cram them full of the dry
leaves, and, instructing him to ill the
other two, Joe swung the full sacks
| upon his shoulders. marched across the
road and emptied them on his four
acres; then back ard securing the two
Link had filled, ne emptied them. the
others meanwhia IN turn having been
loaded
Mr.. Weston grinned derisively. Joe
was really too busy to notice him. Un-
til noon the boys worked like beavers,
and by that time a third of an acre
had been covered with leaves over
shoetop deep. Bright and early next
morning they resumed work after hav-
ing put in a steady afternoon, and by,
the time dinner was ready one acr
had been covered. Another day COY
cred another acre and cleaned Il
about all the leaves i'll the grove.
That night Mr.. Weston undertook to
have some fun at JOe's expense.
Coin to tote leaves from that next
groveY he inquired. The next grove
was nearly a mile away
mo, too far-won't pay" This COM
mon sense view stumped him for
awhile.
Daddy, I'll give you 10 cents load
for what fertilizer there is in the barn
yard"
"Aint none there-not over load or
so. You can have it for that price IL
you get it up" Mr.. Weston had never
thought Of it as having any value at
all and never collected it or used 1t on
crops.
Next morning Joe and Link. each
with a hoe, began seraping the cow lot
and barn floor. going down after the
thick layer of well rotted humus form
ing material that had accumulated for
several years and which Mr.. Weston
had placed no value on whatever.
Eleven two horse wagon loads were Sc
cured. Joe borrowed his fathers wag-
on and scattered the entire lot on the
acre he proposed to plant corn upon.
That's my corn acre, Link" he ex-
planned. I'm going to try to grow
some corn here like it ought to be.
What's the most corn you and Uncle
Jeff ever made to the acre."
81 dunno 'zac'ly, but hit wuz in de
neighborhood of fifteen bushels"
Joe bought eight more loads of barn.
yard fertilizer from a neighbor at 20
cents a load, delivered, and put that on
his cotton acre.
Then he made all arrangement with
another neighbor who had plow suit
able for deep breaking and stipulated
that four mules were to be attached
to it.
"Whatn the name of peace you want
that fer2 Yer goin' ter tear the bottom
plumb outer this field. Coin ter plow
plumb down ter Chiny?" inquired the
farmer
Eyes, I'm going to tear the bottom
out. | want that land broke fourteen
inches deep, cross broke and then har-
rowed."
"All right; you're the doctor on that.
I'll charge you 49,"
That's trade; hitch up. want to
get it broken as soon as possible"
The plOwman was greatly astonished
at the amount of leaves on the two
acres and the amount Of fertilizer
spread Then he sank the heavy plow
to the shank on the outer edge of the
measured lot; the four mules strain
ed, and a great heavy ribbon of dirt
rolled over from the plOw as it moved
forward. Eight inches below the sur
face the ground was sterile and poor.
Below that depth it was fairly good.l
This was the dirt the light one horsel
plows could never reach.
The great turning plow reversed
things. The poor dirt was thrown to-
the bottom. and the comparatively
good soil was by the operation brought
to the top. The leaves and fertilizer
were covered and well mixed in.
Then a crosswise blowing at the
same depth, to break up the packed
soil and immense hard flakes, and
narrowing to further pulveriZe it, and
Joe wrote his first check The man
looked at the signature Weston & Som.
ervile as though he thought Joe had
gone entirely crazy.
"What's all this here foolishnessT' he
asked, holding the check gingerly.
"You present that at the bank, and
If they don't pay it Mr.. Somerville will.
He's my partner" announced Joe
proudly.
"Well, I'm goin' to town now an see
about it, an if it amt paid there's GO
in to be trouble" said the man trucu-
IantIy