Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1909-07-24

a
It's been a strenuous week on the
farm. Things have been happening
not all of them eminently desirable
things. And that's the way the row
began" ends the famous old story
of the washerwomans testimony as 70
her fight with her neighbor. The row
began, in this case. Sunday evening.
And it has kept humping itself quite
constantly ever since. This being an
off day." I'm looking over my scratch
es and scars; counting up to see
whether I'm likely to get Carnegie
medal or not. Also I'm taking stock
to see what's left
AS say, il began last Sunday eve
nina. Just as dusk was falling ! learn
ed that a wild heifer and calf were in
the neighborhood, seeking what they
could devour They had descended up
on a neighbours kitchen garden, the
night before, and left 1t ruin. Sweet.
corn all eaten off; early beets ditto;
cabbage plants destroyed; cucumDers
and squashes trampled and torn up
etc. etc All this within eighty rods
of my own three acre truck patch, on
the safe maturing of which / rely for
my living Word had been sent to
the presumable owner of the beast
a big farmer with hired herdsmen and
great pastures of hundred acres or
more in each, but two men, after q
whole days search had failed to To-
cate the ''critter.' Right next to my
gardens lies a moving field, open to
everything on three sides, and the
fence between it and me-the only
one which is pretended to be kept up
has been blown down in twenty
places by the frequent gales of the
spring and early summer. / had my
best and prettiest clothes on, having
ALI faf, cd 10 tra uhrV q nv /
heard the news. But l had to make
O. break for that bad fence, regard
less, and work till it grew too dark
TO see a post, in the damp grass
propping up and soldering the old
thing till it would at least look like
a fence. Then / shut all my gates
and went to bed to try and sleep, and
TO find myself dozen times raised
on one elbow. listening intently to
some slight night-sound which my
half sleeping ears had magnified into
the scrunch of a cows hoofs in my
melon patch.
Next day, my own staid old BrindIe
got over a weak spot in my own fence
and was browsing a line straight to-
wards the early corn when | discov-
cred her and cut her prospective
luncheon short. That meant more
fence fixing And there were peas to
pick and potatoes to dig and beets
and onions and carrots and caulihower
to gather, and the dozen other kinds of
truck which wanted for my cart next
dayl
4 didn't ease things up any when,
taking my regular morning trip
through the gardens Tuesday, I dis
covered that something had eaten off
about three hundred cabbage plants,
which were all there the night before
We've no cutworms, thus far this
year. and besides these were eaten
off well above the taxpayer guards
which had been put around many, of
the plants when set. No, it wasn't
cutworms and it wasn't COW. Care
full scrutiny of the grassed border at
last disclosed a slight track which.
when followed. led to an old stone
wall in which whole family of wood
chucks had made their summer home.
NO use of trying bi-sulphide of car
bon or any other like "woodchuck
DOPE in that case. Their hole was
under the wall and might be venti-
lated at a dozen places, SO that her
metically sealing it UP was out of the
question. A lot of bean plants were
stuck into the ground sprinkled and
dressed with paris green. Investiga-
ton showed three other holes along
plugged 'em up as well as we could,
set traps at all. put more poisoned
green stuff around the garden edge
and then set solemnly to work re-
planting the cabbage-bed.
BY this time the drouth, which had
been growing worse for about two
weeks. had reached a degree which
was mighty serious The week before
] had set about thousand celery
plants Despite the care with which
the transplanting had been done and
the thoroughness with which they had
been 'watered in" after setting, fully
half of them died under the broiling
sun and from the lack of moisture.
Two thousand more must be set, how
ever. What were we to do? Well,
first we plowed the ground, which
had been in early peas. 1t was like
blowing ashes, and the dust which
rose behind the pillow handles was al
most suffocating Then we put on a
bag of high-grade fertilizer and sup
plemented it with a good dose of clear
nitrate of soda, all narrowed in.
When we came to make the trenches
for the plants, sides and bottoms of
the twice plowed burrows were Just
as dry as road-dust and as shifty To
put plants into that sort of soil was
sure death, and merely watering them