“…The two farms operated at about the same scale and produced much the same mix of products. By 1880, Davidson owned 500 acres and leased 800 more for grazing sheep, still viable in the 1890s, while Blackie's property, divided among several heirs in 1887, became vulnerable to any trough of low prices or run of bad weather (Holland, Olson, & Garden, 2019, 17). Day after day these farmers, like many others, registered the time they spent on various tasks, amounts of seed and fertiliser applied, bushels of oats or tons of potatoes harvested, animals purchased or sold, as well as observations of weather, accidents, and social events 3 .…”