CHAPTER XXXIV

PLANNING FOR LIFE





HEART-OF-EGYPT, ILLINOIS, June 16, 1904.

Mr. Charles West,

Blue Mound, Va.

MY DEAR SIR:--I have delayed writing to you in regard to the plans
for Poorland Farm, until I could feel that we are able at least to
make an outline of tentative nature. The labor problem of a farm of
three hundred and twenty acres is of course very different from that
on forty acres, and we are not yet fully decided regarding our crop
rotation and the disposition of the crops produced (or hoped for). I
realize that to rebuild in my life what another has torn down during
his life is a task the end of which can hardly be even dimly
foreshadowed. Some friends are already beginning to ask me what
results I am getting, and they apparently feel that we must succeed
or fail with a trial of a full season. I have said to them that I
have no objection whatever to discussing our plans at any time, so
far as we are yet able to make plans, but that I shall not be ready
to discuss results with anyone until we begin to secure crop yields
in the third rotation. This means that I am not expecting the
benefits of a six-year rotation of crops before the rotation has