ground causes scab, it is a fact that it will aid in spreading
the disease. Hiram was sure enough--because of the sheep-sorrel on the
piece--that it all needed sweetening, but he decided against the lime at
this time.

As soon as Hiram had drag-harrowed the piece he laid off two rows down
the far end, as being less tempting to the straying hens, and planted
early peas--the round-seeded variety, hardier than the wrinkled kinds.
These pea-rows were thirty inches apart, and he dropped the peas by hand
and planted them very thickly.

It doesn't pay to be niggardly with seed in putting in early peas, at
any rate--the thicker they come up the better, and in these low bush
varieties the thickly growing vines help support each other.

This garden piece--almost two acres--was oblong in shape. An acre is
just about seventy paces square. Hiram's garden was seventy by a hundred
and forty paces, or thereabout.

Therefore, the young farmer had two seventy-yard rows of peas, or over
four hundred feet of drill. He planted two quarts of peas at a cost of
seventy cents.

With ordinary fortune the crop should be much more than sufficient for
the needs of the house while the peas were in a green state, for being a
quick growing vegetable, they are soon past.

Hiram, however, proposed putting in a surplus of almost everything he
planted in this big garden--especially of the early vegetables--for he
believed that there would be a market for them in Scoville.

The ground was very cold yet, and snow flurries swept over the field
every few days; but the peas were under cover and were off his mind;
Hiram knew they would be ready to pop up above the surface just as soon
as the warm weather came in earnest, and peas do not easily rot in the
ground.

In two weeks, or when the weather was settled, he proposed planting
other kinds of peas alongside these first two rows, so as to have a
succession up to mid-summer.

Next the young farmer laid off his furrows for early potatoes. He had
bought a sack of an extra-early variety, yet a potato that, if left
in the ground the full length of the season, would make a good winter
variety--a "long keeper."

His potato rows he planned to have three feet apart, and he plowed the
furrows twice, so as to have them clean and deep.

Henry Pollock happened to come by while he was doing this, and stopped
to talk and watch Hiram. To tell the truth, Henry and his folks were
more than a little interested in