Norwich bulletin., 1909-01-23
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS.
The North Pole Moves Down--The First Lamb--Born in
the Open to a Cold WorldThe oldest Thing in
Life is How Some Things Do Happen and Some
Dont-Things Which Cannot be Lost.-Sheep Know
What's Good for 'Emlnstinct Beats Reason for AMI
mals---An Illustrative Instance.

! there. unseen by seven dozen passing
boys for a week, only to be scrunched
up into plain sight by a buggy wheel
just two minutes before 1 came along
to see it and pick it up. Last summer
1t dropped through a hole in my
pocket somewhere in three acres vi
garden. I found it again. If l lose a
pencil or a pair of gloves or an Did bolt
they'll turn up all right. If l don't
find 'em myself somebody else will and
return EN- to me. But two years ago
a little notebook disappeared, in which
had Jotted down records and sugges-
tons about various more or less per-
nickety garden crops during a dozen
years growing experience with them,
book of more practical worth to me
than any six volumes in my library
and not so much as a torn corner of a
leaf from it has ever since appeared.
Perhaps ten years ago a good watcn
Hoped out of my vest pocket while l
was cultivating corn. l missed it at
the end Of the row it must have fallen
in, for l had looked at it before start
ing Old SOrrel off on the row, and
noticed the broken chain dangling as I
turned at the further end. But a long
search failed to find it and I've never
seen it since.
IF thing is of little Importance or
value and l lose it l am fairly sure to
find it again. But if it is of real value
then goodbye. Of course this isn't
luck" But what in goodness name
shall we call 1t?
AS the theater programmes some
times say, please assume lapse Of
about nineteen and a half minutes be-
tween that last word and the paragraph
following.
I've just waded I'D to the barn again
tn tgI<nf a link 1irt1n
His mother has called him out of
the fold and he Is lying, apparently
perfectly comfortable, on the straw
under the open shed, again. Some
years ago, when l was more certain
than I am now that I know more Of
a sheep, 1 should have dragooned him
back and fastened him in where neith-
er Of them could get out into the snow.
But. the longer live, the more firm
is my conviction that I know what
l want better than a sheep. And,
'pari passu," the longer I live the
more firm grows my conviction that
sheep know what's good for them bet
ter than 1 do. If they want to eat
weeds and bushes instead of good hay,
it's because weeds and bushes are bet
ter for them. Let 'em have the stuff.
II they want to lie out in the open
shed, where the wind blows and the
snow Sits a little, and there's plenty
of fresh air. why, let 'em. I've lost
one or two sheep by trying to take
care Of EN-, my way. I haven't lost
one, yet, by letting them take care Of
themselves, as nearly as is possible
under domestication.
Indeed, the more see of animals
the more am convinced that they
are very different from humans and
aren't wisely managed on lines which
would be good policy for humans.
Whatever instinct may be, and I
don't care a straw Tor the naturalists'
discussions over its approach to or
divergence from Observation-Disclosures it
may be, it is a safer guide to follow
in treating the animals, which have 1t
than our reason is. Some years ago,
a certain experiment station undertook
to 'coddle" its herd Of COWS along
some new feeding and stabling fad
ideas. One Of the professors, q farm
raised lad, got permission to make a
little 'speriment" Of his own. SO he
picked out a fairly good cow. not one
of the best nor one of the poorest, and
proceeded to treat her as nearly the
way she wanted as he could find
out. She had her choice of feeds, and
was finally given that which she
seemed to like the best and ate up
the cleanest, which happened to be
mostly farm roughage-cornstalks
straw, hay. etc. She had her choice
Of a box-stall or an open shed, bat
tened on one side and the ends. She
preferred the shed and stayed in it.
She went out to the brook for water
when she pleased, regardless of the
weather. The other COWS had scien-
tifically compounded rations, and run
ming water in their stables, and were
never let out if it stormed, and were
curried once a day and blanketed if
there was hard frost. and so on and
on.
And that little red COW out in the
open shed, that cold winter, did bet
ter than the coddled herd averaged
came to the spring in better shape,
gave more milk and made more but
ter. and produced the finest calf of
the whole bunch.