Chapter 23

In the weeks after the harvest, Bryson worked through the plan he'd been building since the early days at Earl's kitchen table.The low northern section—the 20 acres of clay-heavy ground that flooded reliably in every significant rain—was going to stay exactly what it was. He reseeded it with a grass mix suited to wet soil conditions and planned to bring in a small number of cattle the following spring, turning that section into the pastureland and natural water buffer it had functioned as before. The drainage problems that had plagued every commodity crop attempt on that section were not problems when the section wasn't being used for commodity crops; they were features characteristic of terrain that was well-suited for one purpose and completely wrong for another.The southern section went into a planned rotation. Sweet potatoes would stay in the mix, but Bryson had decided to trial peanuts on one portion the following season, based on what Earl had told him about the farm's original crop history. He left another portion unplanted, giving the organic structure of that subsurface layer time to continue rebuilding.The barn was functional again by the end of October, the roof repaired with materials that would hold through winter. The well pressure had been stabilized. The fence line along the county road had been replaced entirely, the posts set properly in the ground for the first time in years.Earl Beckett came out one afternoon in early November to walk the cleared field with Bryson. At one point near the southern edge, he crouched down and worked a handful of earth between his fingers, the way someone handles something valuable. He said the soil felt like it was waking back up. He said it the way you say something when you're not entirely sure language is adequate to what you're actually observing, but you use the words you have.Bryson asked him what he thought it would look like in five years if it was managed right.Earl looked out across the field and took his time before he answered. He said he thought it would look like what it used to look like: productive, consistent, the kind of farm that doesn't make news, but doesn't cause problems either. He said the southern section had the kind of bones that don't disappear just because someone treats them badly for a while. Soil with real structure and real organic depth could take a lot of misuse and still come back if someone was willing to work with it correctly and give it time.

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