Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1909-05-01
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS.
"Never Saw Such Spring Kept Records Show
Us How Forget-Age and Youth--Farming in the
Good Old Times-Wages and Prices-What Comes
of Discontent-The Present is Better Than the Past.

(WTitten specially for The Bulletin.)
Nv old father, who lived to see
ninety-five years and preserved all his
mental faculties unimpaired up TO
within few weeks of his death, used
20 laugh over the way many people
talked about the past and the present
Some neighbor would come in whimp-
ering about the weather. Never saw
such a spring; when il doesn't rain
abe wind blows so you can't Work: the
ground is cold and sour; why, | only
planted my early potatoes yesterday;
they'll probably rot in the ground
and so on and on.
When the sore heads had departed,
the old gentleman would get out his
weather. book and say: Let S see
whether this is worse spring than
usual" Generally he'd find that there
had been one quite as cold and sour
within less than five years. But we
all managed to get our seed in and our
crops out just the same.
Once we had a singing hard frost
tne very last of May. 1t killed some
things and damaged lot more. One
of the Jeramiahs dropped in to bewal
his hard luck. What re things comin'
tor" he wanted TO know why. there
was ice on the tub over TO my barn.
Never heard of such freeze so late"
he declared. The governor had been
looking at his weather-bOok only
minute before and was loaded for
ear" "Oh yes you have" he retort-
ed and opened his diary. There 1t was
let down with full detail how, the very
year before. Ice half-inch nick had
made on still water the Sd Of June.
jeremiah looked sheepish. "Bgum,
that's so: remember it, now: Ia clean
forgotten It, though
lie seems to be rule in rural COM
munities, if not elsewhere, to make
the worst OF things. The present IS
always made out a little worse than
the past Listen to much Of the COM
mon talk and you'd suppose that the
golSen age was gone by, that It exist
cd forty or fiftW years aS": that fsrm-
ing was degenerating; that all pro-
duce- prices were going down and all
aoods-prices going up: that the pro =
pects were getting steadily gloomier;
that we were all going to the dogs,
and that there was no help for US.
Oh, bcsh! We're getting older and
the autumn OF life like the fall of the
times. But. taking things by and
large" and considering the country as
a whole and all the farmers in it, the
farmer like everybody else. is better
off than he ever was, and is getting
farther ahead all the time. OF course,
p they once were: but / notice that
twenty-year- old Tom Latham can hunt
or fish all day. and go TO a dance a
dozen miles away for the night and
still be on hand next morning to pillow
mis- two acres The universe doesn't
get the back-ache every time l jar my
0ertebrae. Nor does the whole human
race skin its nose every time I trip
and tumble.
The trouble is that we forget. We
FORGET the huthcrs Of our bOyaDOd . nd
remember only its delights We for
get the tight boots that tortured our
yCGDg feet and remember only the prct
rs girls We danced with. We forget
the long days IF hard work ard remem-
her only the afternoons when we went
'icnfc-ing We forget the many times
We dshed all day long with hardly a
bite, but remember AS il it were yes
teT5ay tho two FOUNDER we pulled oue
from the old Willow hole We for
get the bistered hands and sorely
bent backs which followed a day with
the scythe and the mandrake. but re-
member how much heater the fence
corners used TO look. We forget the
work day WEAKNESS of the old imes
and rcnembeC, only the occasional al
leviations. 1t would be a blessed thing.
this Sitting ont Of memory.-lf It led
MS only to happy "reminiscences. and
some arraignfnents of the present.
Cnce in 2 while sonethir cores UP
to freshen in my mind recollections
Of the real life Of fifty years ago: And
Il Is Astonishing to II g TO observe how
much rosters tinge the present takes
IN after AIRY such recrudescen Of
the actual past The other cay I read
ir a western farm paper bit OF remi-
niseence from an old Iowa farmer.
He too. had evidently kent records of
some sort. and his reading Of them
had led him TO set down a Few facts
f.r the Information OF the present gen
Grafton Perhaps some Of YOU, who
can remember New England farm
life half a century go. may be inter
cstcd. as I was. in the story of an Iowa
farm from 1854 to 1864.
He moved from Iowa to st. Louis
in 1854. IN that city the father and
elder brother had been trying to exist
on a grading job. five miles out Of
town. where they got IS cents a day
and boarded Perhaps
some Of the hired men" Of 1909 may
take notice Of that work and wage IN
'the good Old times"-They lived on