My dear Cal,

I have been sending your letters to the Mater and of course we both agree if there is any money in it, go ahead.¹ There are a couple of things though that I would like to find out about.

In the first place I understand from your letter that the ground would be broken before next June and the first crop would be in 1911. I suppose it would be planted in the fall of 1910 or the spring of 1911. What I would like to find out is, what is the effect of breaking upon the land. After it is once broken does it need to be continually in crop or could you at any time leave it without cultivation. I think I understood from you that once the land is broken it becomes liable to weeds and consequent deterioration both in fertility and correspondingly in value. Also what amount and to what extent and when does it become necessary to fertilize it.

What I am driving at is this. To what extent are you dependent on the honesty of the man who works the land for you and how easy is it to cause the land to deteriorate in value?

You will be through you see and very probably away from there altogether before your first crop comes off. After that you will have to depend entirely on Glendinning. So what extent is his honesty a factor? My idea, and I think it was yours when you got the land was simply to hold onto it until it acquired a value from its accessibility or its scarcity. It is now fairly accessible but it is not as yet at all scarce and I should fancy it might be ten years or so before you can get a price for it. So that whatever you do now you must look forward to holding it for that length of time at least. How much danger is there of its deteriorating in value either from bad cultivation or no cultivation at all once it is broken?

The only other point which strikes me is, are you getting enough. I assume Glendinning buys the seed. How much does this amount to, but it does seem as if one-half would be more like it. What is the usual arrangement?

your aff'te brother

T.B. McQuesten

¹ Calvin was planning to grow crops in Saskatchewan. For links concerning Calvin's farmland, see W8239. This letter listed in Calendar as W8216.