Norwich bulletin., 1910-07-09

Written Specially for The Bulletin.
 As we all know. Col. Roosevelt Is a Eturdy advocate of the strenuous life" My Webster defines strenuous" as
 eagerly pressing or urgent" etc. They say the colonel reads everything, so 1 spose he must read these talks. be drop politics and reporter dod ging end magazine editing and occasional tree chopping, and tackle a small farm or truck patch. If he doesn't find the management of even five acres, in such . season as this has been and is, quite 1s Strenuous" an occupation as even , phis soul demands, it will be because nhe Is too greedy.
 Eve said before this that people who are always complaining of the actual season as being particularly worse than any other past season are apt 10 be persons of short memory, unable to recall their own troubles of twelve or twenty-four months previous. But ' almost wish. now, had never said 1t. For this time it really does seem to me as if The Old Scratch had un- toggled a. few more links in his chain, and was cavorting around over a little have been days when I feared that the chain had broken in two and that he was loose!
 5ust about as contrary and whimsical es it could be in any ordinary uni verse don't doubt that Omni potence could make worse weather than that of the past three months; but I'm fair fy confident that Omnipotence never did. For long time it rained So regularly every day that seeding was delayed and cultivation made inpos- which they took with prom ptitude and energy. Then followed a dry spell" which baked the sodden surface into clods and chunks and matched out the bugs.
 Oh. those bugs and things! They Poverty Hollow" because of the old clothes most of it's denizens regularly wore. But I've christened it anew. Hereafter its name is "Bugtown." It has nearly made me "bughouse'' this year Seems to me I have had to light, thus far, every known hurtful breed of bird and bug and bacteria. oust listen to my tale of woe:
 As soon as my asparagus began to grow the rabbits set out to eat it off <Perhaps you'll say: Does he call rabbit a bird or buzz" Now don't the famous story of the English rail- way guard who was appealed to by one passenger to put off another who was leading a mud-turtle by a string. ts dogs he finally said, and cats is cats and they bean't allowed to ride. But toftoises is insects and there ain't no rule agen 'em-) Wen begin over again: l1r i
 First came the rabbits. That meant Various trials with poison and shot gun before could collect asparagus
 Then a new sort of blight attacked the lsttuce. This called for much ex- perfnrenting and work.
 As soon as the corn was planted the crows came from all crowdom to pull fY na va Ina nd cull
 Next thing. my onions began to show evidences of the work of maggots. You people who have raised onions will know just how pleasant a thing that is.
 By that time the striped beetles ar- rived. not by dozens and scores, but by quarts and pecks, and the cucurf1 bers and squashes and melons called for the prompt attention of a trained nurse fairly conquered, the still smaller black Geae descended from above or rose from below and swarmed over practi- cal1y everything except the weeds They made face-work of the leaves in no time.
 Before we had found any sure way to check them, the cutworms began to chop off young cabbages. Try to hunt put these hiding villains and kill them fn patch of a thousand cabbages and tell me if you find anything ''strenu- ous" about it not
 Next the big pumpkin-b bugs, after conscientiously eating off every pie pumpkin plant which had started | among the corn, moved into the squash l bed and began to lay out checker boards with their eggs on the under aide of the leaves
 Az I was weariIy stopping along a l POW of crooknecks. turning over the | leaves one by one and scraping off | the eggs, Hank the hired man, said | ceusually: Noticed how thick the | 'tater bugs are?" "Old ones?" I ask ed Nope. eofties," he answered
 Then came a session with Paris | green Just as got the field half | sprayed, up over the northwest hill | rose 2 sudden thunder head" and | fifteen minutes later it was coming in | @ deluse, washing off all my work l This gave me the privilege of doing it | 6n over again. next day. Tomorrow | I've got to tackle the second matching |