Norwich bulletin., 1909-07-10
A FARMERS talk TO FARMERS
Everything in Life Comparative-Fow to Compare Our
Lots-No Man, Woman Child is Left without a
Blessing of Some Sort-Keep the Eye Right and the
Mind Right and Lies Affairs will Seem to be Better
Balanced. - .-A,-----s

/ travaga11t Injuries, attainable only by
the rich. Their fields furnished them
with corn and wheat and rye, which
their own mills ground into flour and
meal Their cattle and sheep and
swine supplied them with meat. The
hides, tanned in their own tannery,
gave them the leather for boots and
shoes and harness, etc. They had no
vegetables other than those coming
from their own gardens, no fruits 9TH
er than those they could grow on their
own trees. Their maple orchard"
was the source Of such sugar and syr-
UP as they used. The wool from their
sheep, carded and rove and spun and
dyed and woven by themselves, was
made into winter clothing at home.
For summer wear they grew their own
fax, retted and stripped and heclxled
and spun and wove II into coarse lin
en-, dyed with butternut bark. Tea
some liked an "herb tea" brewed
sometimes from sweet fern leaves and
q coffee made from roasted rye or
corn was desired by others. If they
wanted an orthodox Thanksgiving din
ner, they must raise their own tur-
keys and pick their own cranberries
from their own boys.
Other farmers, having sfnalI families
anu less QlvCFGity VI Ad<OOE " AAdW W
on, lived in much the same way, but
with something less Of comfort end
variety. Many a farm house which
today has its modern sfx-hole range,
had then no better facilities for warm
ing and cooking than the crane and
pots in an open fireplace. Where to-
day improved oil lamps give ample
and mellow. light. they. used only
feebly burning. sickly shining, grease
drOy,Y1ir1cr fol1nru 6frg Ware. Ers0yT a hOV
ON farm fifty years ago? Then you
remember that banana was an I'M
known Joy to you; that you thought
yourself lucky IL you got an orange or
two, holiday times; that you had to
go after the COWS barefoot because the
old folks couldn't AFFORD to have you
wearing out shoes In the rocky pas
lures, and SO on and on.
I know farnhcuses today where the
bills for what would have been con-
sidered extravagant luxuries fifty years
ago are bigger every year than the to-
tai living expenses of larger families
in the same houses at that time. We
farmers get more money than our
fathers and grandfathers did. And we
spend more. We get more for what
we spend. II we save less. it's our
fault and not the fault OF the times.
VIC w 4CS6 WOAh lAAe1AA SAA @c~SAOA0 cAAAQ
grandfathers-and less than our moth
ers and grandmothers. for that matter.
We can live easier and better than
they, If we choose.
When compare what am able to
earn with the incomes OF Morgan or
Rockefeller-when I compare my
house with the palaces OF Newport
and Tuxedo-when compare my plain
country fare with the feasts to which
some rich men sit down every day
when 1 compare my steady old farm
horses. Stacking along at six miles
an hour, with Dives glittering auto
mobile flashing by at forty miles in
cloud of dust-why, then, am apt to
"get a crouch on" and develop very
uncomfortable feeling Of discomfort and
envy. But, on the other hand, when I
compare the comforts and luxuries
that are now a daily portion with the
baroness and privation which were the
I'm inclined to take q very different
view Of things.
OF course, I haven't all ! want. I
want more; you want more; he Cor
she) wants more; we all, every moth
er's son and daughter of US, want more
and always shall want more, till the
crack o. doom. If we spend our lives
comparing what we haven't got with
what somebody else has, we're going
to have a mighty mean time Of it.
What's the use? Enough discomfort
to spur US on to progress is desirable;
but it's often possible to have too
much of good thing. Why not try to
even things up?" 1t might do to
grumble because others are better off
than we are on, say, Mondays and
Wednesdays and Fridays, and to hur-
rah on Tuesdays and Thursdays and
Saturdays because we are better off
than our granddads.
"And what'll we do on SundaysT
oh, dear hearts, do whichever you
yet. do what you think
the good Lord would rather have you
do, fcF just one day in the week.
THE FARMER