The Newtown bee., 1909-02-12

THE ADVANTAGES OF BELONG
 ING TO THE GRANGE, AN AD-
 DRESS MADE BY E. 4. PAuR,
 MASTER OF BETHEL GRANGE
 NO. l64, AT THEIR INsTAI,LA.
 TI0N OF OFFICERS, JANUARY
 2l, 1906.
 Friends and patrons, l suppose have been chosen to address you on ''The Grange", "The Advantages of Belong ing to the Grange" and Farming, on the supposition that what man knows the least of he is the best able to talk about. We'll, I'll cry to talk to you about these things anyhow, and let you judge how much or how little l know about them. l am not mem- Der of very long standing in the Grange, and as a faamer l have not even planted my first crop of tnrnips. And that is perhaps just as well, as on account of the hot weather, last sum mer, they would have fallen off the trees anyhow before they were ripe. Now this is one of the advantages of belonging to the Grange, all our older members, who are practical farmers, are able to foretell the weather for six months ahead in any part of the United States 2 except Danbury and Bethel. But the way it has been changing here lately you can't blame them for that. They can also tell you the probable rainfall ane its effect in filling any reservoir in the country, excepting the Bethel reservoir. A peculiar fact about the Bethel reservoir is that no matter what the rainfall, we are al- ways cautioned not to use so much water. It seems it never gets really full. This is a frean which it takes more than a practical farmer to ex- plain. A practical politician might be able to do so, much better. But to come back to the turpips l didn't plant. I was informed by brother in the Grange that we would have d very wet summer and that the tur- nips would probably rot on the stalks; also as l was reliably in- formed, thire was lots more money in chickens and l guess there is. l know couple of people living in
 6ethel, who have put lots of money in chickens. aud it's in yet. suppose they'll never get it out. Anyhow l decided to invest the money l saved by not planting turnips in milk chickens. Milk-chickens are a new brand of fowl, invented by Luther Burba 1k O. snm- ot1er g'after. You know it's awful inconvnient to have a lot of cows standing around eating a lot of hay at $20 a ton, and taking
 up lot of room that would be of more use as golf links or something ike that Besides, we need our ba ns nowadays to keep our automobiles in. So it seemed to me a bully trans position: to have chickens that would
 Hay milk" so to speak; particular ly as all they were to require for feed
 was grass and milk-weed, and we
 have lots of that all over the bor- F ough. So l laid in a stock of about 100 of these milch-chickens; each chicken will lay only quart day
 and you need a lot to start milk
 route. Now, I know lots of people in Bethel: that's one advantage of } belonging to the Grange; and I fig ured out, that if some milk-men I { know, could, with three COWS (two of them dry) supply milk route of 50 customers, why shouldn't l, with 100 quarts Of milk day from my chick ems and with the help of the brook. l be able to supply 200 customers a 3 day. At 1Oc quart that's sz0 day
 Why, there's millions in it. I was :, going to charge 1Oc because each GUS :. toner gets guaranteed milk; the milk s from the same individual COW, or f rather chicken, each day. We'll, it
 wasn't l success. Good friends tell
 me Chats another advantage of be- . longing to the Grange: you'll always
 find good friends to tell you about
 things, after it is too late) that
 chose the wro1 2 breed of fowl. I had , LtshornS, and these are to alarmed
 active, anyhow: they used tc hop up ,r and down, and on and off their perches all day. That was the whole
 trHll The T ilh got chnrned round
 too much and Ill they would lay " ;.s hunks Of bitter; so gave it up.
 There is 6 rumor out that another l. new hat factory is to be opened in n Bethel in the near future.
 ., Dr Edward Gumbart, head master h of South Nerwalk High school, will V deliver a lecture before the teachers