Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1909-10-30
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
Glasses and Ranks-The Snorters and the Snivellers
Evidences that Farming is Not a Failure in Rocky
Frosty New Ensland-The Golden Mean.

and NORWOOD. Their conversation is
always a whimper; their record a
grumble; their only song a wailful
dfrge. Their favorite tune is 'Pleyeps
Hymn" and their pet prophet is the
lamentable jeremiah. They see the
sun only through smoked glasses Of
detection; even their rainbows are
hung with black. They greet the new
day with foreDoding, and await the
night with the dropping of soul. They
assume that farming is slavery and
feel sure that agriculture is going to
the dogs. They can't raise the crops
they used to; they can't get such help
as they used to; they can't buy any
more such boots or such shingles as
they used to; the apples aren't as big
and red as they once were, nor the
maple sugar as sweet.
These are the Snivellers.
Now, |, for one don't think either sort
wholly admirable, nor worthy of imi-
tation. Do you? l don't want to meet
very often people so Snortingly bump
tious that the very sight of 'em walk
ems the old Adam of fighting antagon-
ism within me- Nor do 1 really banker
after the continual society of sad
eyed despair. Both make me uncom-
Portable. And, sakes alive, we haven't
go much time to waste, in our short
lives, as to want to make ourselves
or be made any more uncomfortable
than need be-
Moreover, neither one is right. That's
most important of all. The world is
neither a terrestrial paradise nor is it
a charnel house. Farming is neither
the highest occupation on earth, nor
is it the least honorable. There's
sweet and sour in everything; there's
sunshine and rain every year; there's
good weather and there's bad wealth
er; there's UPS and downs; there is a
time to mourn and a time to dance.
Life isn't as joyful as it ought to be,
nor is it as hopeless as it might be.
Farming isn't as profitable nor as
pleasurable as we wish 1t was, neither
Is it as barren and as deadening as it
could well be if things were a little
different.
II il be true, as ! read asserted on
census authority, that the value Of
the farm products of Connecticut has
increased from about fifteen millions
to about twenty-SiX millions in fifty
years, then farming in Connecticut
isn't wholly a failure. If it be true, as
similarly asserted. that Boston's 1000
manufacturing establishments have an
aggregate value of SAC, 100000 less than
Massachusetts IdrIuSy ll6H IdEiHiuB III
the Goldfish Commonwealth is not
wholly a failure. If it be true as
similarly asserted, that the capital of
the entire textile industry of New
England is $155, 900 less than the
capital invested in New England farms,
then New England farming is not
wholly a failure. And if farming is
not a failure in bleak, rugged, rocky,
mountain heaped, winter swept New
~ % ha in
favored areas. The farmer of today
is better off than the same farmer,
with the same physical and mental
equipment. could have been fifty years
ago. He gets more and has more. he
possesses greater comforts at a lesesr
cost; pc has more leisure and does
less hard work; he is a freer man and
his opportunities for self-improvement
and happiness are greater.
Oh, | know-none better-that it is
a hard world at times, and a cruel. 1t
has it's periods Of storm and stress
when everything seems to shake loose
and nothing is left to tie up to. To
all of us there come times to weep
as well as times to laugh. My own
heart is bleeding, even as I try to
write this, over little fresh-made
grave in the Groton hills. Such a lit
tie, little grave!-and yet in it are bur-
led love which seemed greater than
anything else on earth, and hopes that
once reached out to and took hold of
infinity. Nevertheless, out of the
mounded earth of such graves spring
the towering certainties of immortal
ity. Over even them rises, resplend-
ent, the solemn dawn of The Life Be
yond
There is golden mean, widely sep
arated from either of the extremes to
which / have been abiding. which all
men, and especially all farmers, would
do well to seek 1t avoids undue boast
fulness and bumptiousness, nor does it
choose the black shadow of perpetual
gloom. 1t recognizes the hard and the
cruel in life as well as life's work; and
therefore ii speaks mildly and without