Norwich bulletin., 1909-04-10
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS.
An Off Subject but Pertinent One-A Question of At tention-Ghe Power of Concentrating the Mnd-ll- lustrations of the Difference in ListenersThe Good Listener is Rare-Ihe Ability to >ee Straight and Hear Right Within the Grasp of AL

 (written Specially for The Bulletin.)
 This talk isn't going to be about farming. at all. It's bit hard, at this particular time of the year, to tell ex- actly what is seasonable. Some of us have already got land plowed and crops started. Some of us are yet waiting for the frost to get out of the ground so we can dig parsnips and horseradish. I see by my New York paper that several hundred acres of potatoes were planted in March on Long Island. Up here we're just be- ginning to burn brush and get out manure. A little bottled-up wisdom about potatoes might come in all right for fellows in my latitude. But Long would think me way behind hand" Nevertheless. let me stick in just one little suggestion here for those who can't plant for several weeks yet, but who want early potatoes. Pick out few and set them on end, aS closely as they'll pack, in shallow tray Put them in front of a warm south window somewhere where they won't freeze; sprinkle enough fine sand over them to keep them snug; when your garden Is ready make a trench and set them out by hand. sprouts up; cover carefully, and they'll prick through in very short time. and give you new potatoes
 
 ordinary way have got to the size of marbles.
 The main thing 1 want to chat about this time, however. is not any more interesting to farmers than to any body else. It isn't exactly point of etiquette, and yet 1t bears on manners. It isn't exactly educational. and yet 1t touches on mental habits, It isn't ex- actiy practical, and yet 1t has very real effect in practical affairs. Perhaps some of you will think it is very trifiing matter for grown-up men and women to be lectured about. But. bless your dear hearts. what is life but a whole lot of trihes. strung together on the thread of time like a childs beads on string7
 When you arc reading, or when some one ls talking to you, do you really at- tend to what you read and what you hear? Did you ever try the experi- ment of suddenly laying down your paper or book, after reading para graph, and trying to restate, In your thoughts. the main idea of what you have read? don't mean the reading of short sentence. with this intention in mind when you read it: of course you'H remember 1t then; but the epringtng of the test on yourself un- expectedly to yourself when you are listening to some one else do you att tend to what he is saying. so as to understand 1t clearly, or is your mind wandering all over the United States and part of New London county, thinking of almost anything and every thing else? If you are thus attentive to what you read and hear, I should say. judging from my own experience, that you are exceptional The more I see of men and women, the stronger
  ters of the misunderstandings in this world grow out of the inability of many of us to geo true or hear straight.
 Let me give you a couple of illus trstions of what l mean. One year an Inexperienced young neighbor. who had not. been able to get ripe tomatoes so early as was my custom, asked me to tell him my methods. So I explained 10 him how started the plants, how fitted the ground, how kept the lat erals pinched off and the central vines tied to stakes, and how when the ber- ries had formed I pinched of the top little above the fruit. on a part of tht plants. to prevent further setting and hasten the growth of the early bunch. Later in the season he came to me after tomatoes, as usual He had none, he said; my rules didn't work with him. So began to ask questions. Oh, yes, he had done exactly as told him Sure7 Why. of course he was sure He seemed little hurt that asked the question. Yet learned, later. that he had spent hours on his tomato patch, carefully pruning off every starting tip keeping hts plants only about a foot high Why you told me to pinch off the tops" was his indignant response to my expostulation. He simply had not paid attention to my directions. Yet he actually supposed he had.
 Once it became my duty to present a certain subject to a. prominent man. the governor of an important state. It was not a subject he was specially in- terested in. and he was a very busy man. I strove to make my presenta- tiOn az terHe as possible and as strong. He listened-ilstened with open sars. eyes straight on me, face alert