Norwich bulletin., 1909-08-14
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
the Little Things that Make Up Life here Nothing
New Under the Sun-Neglecting Small Details Ends
in LARGE Losses-The Difference in Farmers.

written especially for The BulletinD
It's the little things that make up
To which true and ancient saying
i can imagine you responding: or
course; and the sun rises in the east,
and -wo plus two equal four. Ta.' US
something new old Truepenny.
Can't do 1t, dear boy; there is noth-
ing new to tell. Even the freshest
society scandal was enacted and chron-
icled hundreds of years ago, and mas
been hundreds of times, since; me
latest fire on Franklin square Is Just
another fire over again, ard the new
est murder is hardly variation ON the
one in Eden's borders, many thousand
years back.
| am not so wise as the Great King,
who was also called The Preacher,
and he had to give 1t up ages since.
THAT which hath been Is that which
shall be. and that which hath been done
is that which shall be done; and there
is no new thing under the sun. Is
there a thing whereof men say. See,
this is new? 1t hath been already, In
the ages which were before US" If
YOU don't believe it, why, fight it out
with Solomon; it is he who says so.
They had wheat trusts in ancient Judea
panies used to pay rebates four thous-
and years ago. There was at least one
steam engine in Alexandria in the
years marked b. c.. and IL the priests
of Isis didn't have telephones and tele-
graphs four millenniums before Morse,
they had something quite as effective
in carrying messages instantly over
hnudrcds of miles of space. In the
way of philosophical truth, the foggy
vapOrizings Of German NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
are only a weak dilution of the oracles
of prehistoric past, and the very
latest diNagations Of theosophy and
soul science are but re-hashes OF
lore that was commonplace in ancient
est India. Don't, therefore, sneer at
this little old farmer man because he
says something you have heard be-
fore.
The trouble with most OF US is, not
that we haven't enough new truth to
go on, but that we don't use the old
truths we know all about. Its the
little things that count in life" You
have heard it scores Of times; you
probably believe it is true. But it
is also highly probable that you don't
act on that belief once a week If
you do, you are the exception. There's
a great difference between knowing
the truth and living the truth. Some
people KNOW all lHG Eul6S OI +,
yet violate a dozen of them every
day. A very few people talk good
English who couldn't repeat one of
the book rules correctly. Still fewer
know the rules so thoroughly and obey
them so instinctively that they in-
variably say the right thing in the
right way and according to the law
Of the language. before they stop to
think what the law Is. But they
are the very small minority, the excep-
lions, the salt in the salad.
Some great man once said that
genius was nothing more than the
capacity for taking infinite pains. Ger
tain 1t is that the one thing which
geniuses is their unusual faculty for
detail Mr.. Edison doesn't perfect his
wonder working inventions all at one
blow Of the hammer. He has factories
full of machinery and of strange sup
plies, busy with the activities of scores
OF chemists and metallurgists and cleo
tricians and engineers and skilled
workmen, each one of whom is pick
ed man In his speciality. Yet Mr.. Eli
son is the master of them all in every
smallest detail of the innumerable sep
m@rate and differing intricacies by the
combinati IN Of which, after thousands
Of trials and experiments. he at last
achieves success.
But, as rule, we farmers have souls
above details--or think we have. We
can't see into the corners of our fences,
because they are not so prominent as
the spreading expanses of the open
fields. OF course, there are excep tons:
some Of us are so stingy and small
that we see only the little things and
we can't see anything else. But these
old hunks are rather rare. And they
are gen orally hardly sane people, in
the true sense of that word. They are
warped and twisted deformities, to be
pitied not quoted. The most OF us
waste opportunity and lots profit Just
because we can't or won't look after
the little things.
Three years ago, ! noticed a little
patch Of Orange hawk-weed growing
by the roadside about six miles from
my place. 1t was close by the hons
Of a busy farmer who raises big fields
OF corn and potatoes and oats. In
fact, it was right against his fence.
But it was too small thing for him
to notice--certainly too small to excite
enough interest to send him Out with
a little salt to kill it, In due course
It ripened and scattered its seeds. Now
the pest is so firmly established in
that town that farmers are writing
10 the papers to ask how to save their
pastures. All agree that it started from
this little chance patch; it was abso-
lutely unknown till then. Ten minutes
Is but a little time; pound. of coarse
salt is of but little value; the combina-
tion or the two three years ago would
have saved a great many losses and
o. tremendous amount of work.