By the time Thufir Hawat was ready at age thirty-five to join House Atreides on Caladaft, fee was the most superbly trained Mentat HI tfae Impentun The robust Duke Mintor Atreides had a vitality that promised to test Hawat's powers to their utmost Determined to develop fully the fief his family had held for twenty generations, Date Mintor challenged Hawat to solve his expansion problems Accordingly, Hawat surveyed the Duke's lands, directed the construction of dams to control goods and complex irrigation systems, and designed efficient transportation and communication networks He searched the Impenum for experts in agriculture, viticulture, animal husbandry, and mining to serve as a faculty in the schools he founded Armed with Hawat s plans, the Duke's thoroughly trained subjects produced record crops and quality wines, propagated top-quality cattle and farm animals, and developed lucrative mines Duke Mintor's flourishing estates, literally the creation of Hawat's energy and expertise, became the envy of the Impenum The Duke's absolute fairness and honesty in all his dealings with Hawat (traits also seen later in Leto) aroused m the Mentat an abiding affection and admiration One source suggests that the Duke was pe