Norwich bulletin., 1910-04-09
fs1 G17 E@l9 @ X 1.-THE FARMERS IALK1 < A TO FARMERS mp
What Life Is-Mottoes that Fit-Ih More Civilized and Corventionaliz=d We Get the More Monotonous Life Recomes-A Remarkable March and Surprising Sprina-Mice and Cabbages-A Speckled Pullet- The Season of 1910 Promises Keep Us Guessing

want to get the most out of their lives will find real gain in being able to enthuse over details. Who ever saw
 before such March as this spring
 gave us? Why, instead of the usual buster and Glowing it was almost like
 May in it's warmth and geniahty: l What @ time to get out manure ana | fix the fences and do the early blow ingl It's been the constant subject for | wonder and wise comment in my neighborhood. Nothing common and l ordinary about this spring thus far To be sure, it's the same old field,
 and the same old horses and the same | old blow. But I never had the dirt turn so lightly and look so warm and promising as some of my stubble land, the other day. Even the sticky garden soil has frothed up behind the mould
 board invitingly, as if it were actually ready for the seeds, and eager to ao- sorb them into it's fertile bosom. The shad- bushes on the hillside are weeks ahead of time in their white spring dresses The roads. which in my coun. try are apt to be deep slough holes of mud through March and April. are al- ready hard and dry There are enough remarkable things about this spring to keep an observing farmer. wide eyed with interest for fourteen hours a day.
 Old Grum mpety Grunp admits all this. He had parsnips and salsify and horse
 
 earlier this spring than ever before. But he's worrying about the weather that's coming. We've had May In March," he says, watch out and see if we don't get March in May" All right; let's watch out. If we do, there will be another interesting month. What with the start things have got. if we do have some more winter a lit- tie later, 1t will just keep us humping to look after things. own up that I don't want to see a snowstorm and ice in May. But we're talking about the n1onotony of life. And, say, there wouldn't be anything commonplace and stupid about a sleighride on Decora- tion day, would there? It might not be just what we'd like, but 1t wouldn't be "the same old thing over again" Not by a long shot. If the spring keeps on and fulfils all its opening promise. 1t will have been a wonder; if 1t whirls about on its heel, some of these days, and turns into winter agadn,it will give US something to do and to talk about. Anyway, it has been and is go- ing to be an unusual season. We've no call to complain of its dulness.
 farmer is always meeting new problems or new phases of old problems. For years 1t has been my custom to bury a few cabbages in a pit when I cleaned freeze in and, when spring thaws the soil enough to permit uncovering them, come out crisp and fresh. Sometimes they rot a little, if they're covered a bit too deep. But last winter the mice got into them, and over half my hundred cabbage heads I found wholly eaten up when I went after them. Now that's a new thing to happen on this ranch circumvent those pesky mice. another winter. And there's that insignificant little speckled bullet; she's actually gone to laying eggs earlier than some
 -fw w,<~1<< Y, Leghorns matched the same time. Looks as if there must be something to her. after all. Then, too, my black horse, the one with the feaves; he's usually poor shape after winter of hay and mostly dry feed. But this year he's doing his full share of blowing and so forth without showing any more dis tress than his sound, ,lunged mate; l find this fact not only consoling but It looks as if there was in the policy of watering before feeding-never afterwards, which I have been following with him.
 Some garden seeds which don't usually SOW. till we'll along towards May, I've already got in a few rows of
 iHst tss as ers ,, yon ysrsst snoW " rm go- their behaviour. If they aren't killed by 2 late freeze I'll have some things mighty early for this latitude. Also. m trying some new experiments with fertilizers. They'll keep me guessing more or less all the summer. The oth- CT day a stranger stopped to know if I had any pigs for sale. "What're they worth ?'' I asked 'Td give SIS a. pair for real good ones," he replied. Now, thought that was quite interesting. stranger" says I, T was never more sorry for anything in my life than that I haven't got about four dozen pigs just such as you'd lixe.'' If a man is going to be a farmer he can be fairly happy farmer if he'll only cultivate the hal bit of keeping up a fresh and lively interest in all the little things of his farm and his garden and his stables and the ten thousand varying aspects of the nature which surrounds him. It's just as easy to be interested as to be bored-if you'll only think so.
 THE FARMER