Chapter 1

is the first chapter of the Silver Spoon manga.

A first-year high school student named Yūgo Hachiken enrolls at Yezo Agricultural High School, due to the fact that it has a dormitory that will keep him away from his home. However, after he ends up getting lost while chasing after a calf, he discovers that there will be grueling physical labor involved that will simply add up to his regular studying time. After a few days in the campus, Hachiken gradually feels more worn out by the high school itself.

Summary
Out in the snowy wilderness, a young man contemplates over his current circumstances alongside a rather friendly calf. He checks his cell phone and discovers that there is no available signal in the area; slightly frustrated, he begins to wonder where he even is. The young man walks along a dirt path with the calf until he sees a warning sign about bears in the area. Feeling scared, he begins to panic and tries to remember how he got caught up in his situation after just being at his high school.

Earlier that day, a group of first-year students attending Yezo Agricultural High School are given a tour of their new campus; for their first stop, they are all taken to the cattle barn. One of the students complains over the dirty environment until he notices a young calf sucking at the back of his pants, causing him to freak out. An elder within the area then leaves to move the cattle to different stalls, which makes the young man ponder over whether he should catch the young calf beside him. He makes several attempts to, but he continuously fails, angering him. He eventually chases the young calf out of the cattle barn. The first-year students' tour guide later mentions to the other students that a calf will follow anyone that is holding a nursing pail.

The young man fully remembers what had happened and blames the calf for being responsible. He chases the young animal again until he hears a large creature making sounds nearby, which he thinks is a bear. However, it turns out to be a young girl riding a large horse; unfortunately, the young man collapses from fright before he can fully realize what it is.

When he awakens, he manages to tie a rope around the calf's muzzle and walks with it alongside the girl on the horse. The girl introduces herself as his classmate, Aki Mikage, and explains why the calf was running away from him and how he could get it to only follow him. They have a friendly conversation on the way back to the campus until Aki suggests that the young man has a dream, which he hesitantly responds to.

Days later, Aki and the young man head to their homeroom where they are seated amongst their classmates. The homeroom teacher, Sakuragi, has all of the students introduce themselves and talk about their dreams; one-by-one, all of the students give a brief introduction about themselves. When it is his time, the young man introduces himself as Yūgo Hachiken and reveals that he formerly attended a prep school. As he sits back down, he reflects on Aki's statement about his dreams, which he silently tells himself is unnecessary and that he will strive to be the best in the school. However, in a later class, he learns that the textbooks that he had been reading during spring break could not be used in the year and becomes sorely disappointed.

Before the next class, a boy named Keiji Tokiwa asks Hachiken for help in mathematics. Hachiken agrees to help and begins briefly tutoring his new classmate; meanwhile, he overhears the other students talking randomly about various subjects relating to agriculture and animals, which astonishes him by the amount of sophistication compared to the previous discussions about low test scores.

Hachiken and another student named Shinnosuke Aikawa later walk around the campus discussing their goals for coming to the high school. As they talk, they meet Komaba, then they are later joined by Aki. The two childhood friends later tell Hachiken and Aikawa that the campus contains numerous sports-related facilities such as fields and tracks; therefore, all of the clubs that each student is required to take is sports-related. This results in Hachiken feeling rather unmotivated due to his genuine dislike of physical labor. However, he quickly gains slight interest after Aki suggests that he visit the Equestrian Club.

Soon after, the four students are asked to assist in catching runaway chickens; Hachiken and Aikawa end up working together as Komaba and Aki are already in sports clubs. The two boys end up finishing their work around nighttime. For their hard work, they witness one of the young men chopping off the heads of one of the living chickens and are offered its meat when it is ready. Aikawa ends up collapsing from the sight.

Later, Hachiken lies on his bed in the male dormitories and complains about his exhaustion from the past three days to his two roommates, Nishikawa and Beppu. When he asks them about their dreams, they both tell him about their backgrounds and the programs they've enrolled in the high school, causing Hachiken to remark over the high optimism in the students over their goals. Shortly after, they head to take their fifteen-minute baths, although the short amount of time is already conflicting with the other students' bath times.

The first-year students later take their physical fitness test for the spring. They are told by their instructor that they will be doing a single lap around the school campus; unfortunately, they learn while doing their warm-ups that it includes all of the farmlands and forested areas, which would make the single lap measure up to twenty kilometers.

During the physical fitness test, a heavily exhausted Hachiken groans that he longer wants to be at the school while his instructor tells him to continue running from afar.

Characters In Order Of Appearance
1. Yūgo Hachiken

2. Aki Mikage

3. Shinnosuke Aikawa

4. Ichirō Komaba

5. Tamako Inada

6. Keiji Tokiwa

7. Mayumi Yoshino

8. Tarō Beppu

9. Hajime Nishikawa