Bob stuttered. "Are you crazy?" Ebenezer shouted. "The ground is frozen! Where do you think the urea will go when the snow melts? Sideways, most likely, if it ever gets through the snow at all as cold as it is now. Here, look at this data from the NDSU Extension Service. It shows that winter urea application on frozen soils resulted in more than 20 bushels less wheat and almost 2 percent less protein, compared with a spring application. No, I'm not going to let you put urea on any of your fields until it's close to spring."

And Ebenezer was as good as his word. He purchased an extra floater and tender truck to handle the extra spring work. He had to raise his prices a little to pay for the extra steel, but people always said that he looked out for their interests and worked hard to make sure the fertilizer was applied as efficiently as possible.

And when people asked in the winter if putting some urea on the frozen ground was all right, he would point to a chart on the wall that showed how silly the idea was.