It had been 10 long years since Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge's fertilizer plant partner, had died. Ebenezer had bought out Marley's share of the business from Jacob's relatives and had run the plant ever since.

It was Dec. 1 and the weather in his part of North Dakota had dropped below zero every night for a week. The ground was hard and a couple of inches of new snow lay on the ground. More snow was in the forecast in a few days. Before closing, Ebenezer talked to his floater-driver, Bob Cratchet, about applying urea on his fields in the morning. He explained that urea prices were high, but likely would be higher in the spring and supplies might be tight. He might as well apply the urea now while they had more time. Anyway, nothing bad could happen. Could it?
It was too cold for the urea to volatilize.

As he drove into his lane, Ebenezer reached for the garage door opener and thought for a horrifying moment that he saw the face of Jacob where the button used to be. Blinking hard, he forced himself to look again and the face was gone. "No more sauerkraut at lunch for me," he thought out loud.

It was late when he arrived at home. You would think this time of year would be less busy, but end-of-the-year sales were important to next year's spring business and his farmer clients had money to spend before the end of the year.

He watched some TV, had some ice cream and started to get ready for bed.
Suddenly, a loud noise, such as the jangling of chains, came from the basement, if the house had one, which it didn't. Out of the closed door appeared the ghost of Jacob Marley trailing calendars, file cabinets and hundreds of soil thermometers!

"Woe is me and woe is you!" Jacob wailed. "I have suffered these 10 years past because I talked people into putting urea on frozen soil. Now I have this one chance to save you from my fate."

"Jacob, what are you talking about and what are you doing pulling all that garbage behind you?" asked Ebenezer, quite in awe and fear of this eerie spectacle.

"I talked our customers into applying ammonia and urea too early in the fall and putting urea on frozen soil," Jacob wailed. "I thought more about getting the order and getting the fertilizer orders out of the way than I did about the consequences. So I am doomed to forever be burdened with calendars, file cabinets full of NDSU Extension Service publications and soil thermometers that could have increased my customers' nitrogen efficiency! Things that I ignored in life! Woe is me! Now you are thinking about talking your customers into applying urea on frozen ground," Jacob continued. "To help you, I am summoning three spirits, starting tonight, to help you onto the right path. Expect the first when the clock tolls 1." Then he disappeared.

Ebenezer was stunned. He stood shaking and not believing what he just experienced. He went to the bathroom and took a shower. He looked all over the house, but finally decided he had dozed off after the ice cream and had a nightmare. He went to bed and, after much tossing and turning, fell asleep.