Norwich bulletin., 1911-03-04

this matter OF foresight. Doubtless
they all preferred play when the
weather was good to work in getting
ready for bad weather. Doubtless they
all thought it more desirable to spend
an afternoon at the old 'sswimmin'
hole" than to put it in digging bitches
to carry off next springs surplus water
from a wet field. Doubtless they
steaming brown bread on the table
when they were hungry than of the
young corn which needed hoeing in the
hot field, il they were to have corn
meal another year. But-and here's
the point-most of them were able to
wastefulness of this sort of thing. as
they grew up. while few have never
seemed to grow up" at all, except
in the merely physical sense. They
are still happy go-lucky creatures
though why they should be called
always growing and grumbling and
finding fault.
Perhaps some Of them actually can't
help it. 1 don't know; you don't know.
No one OF us knows the heart of even
his nearest friend 1t is not for us to
pass Judgment with any claim to in
fallibility. But we can't help having
our opinions. And my opinion is that
large part of the wants and hard
ships which minority of farmers are
always complaining of Is due to the
men themselves and not to their
farms. In other words, / mean that
they would probably be having just
the same difficulties and deprivations.
would be finding just as hard road
to travel in any other occupation as
In farming. Don't forget, while you're
hearing so much about the farmers
hard row, that there are others in
other vocations who are hoeing in
mighty stubborn -hardpan, and getting
pitifully small returns for their labor
1t depends quite as much on the man
as on his conditions in every case;
conditions in most cases. The people
who look ahead generally get ahead,
whether at farming or bod carrying
or banking. But the people who live
always from hand to mouth are as
likely to be in constant difficulty at
any other occupation as at farming.
The only difference is that the short
sighted farmer generally has less
chance for outside help to remedy his
own failure. He is more likely to have
to take his medicine in full doses and
undiluted.
One of my neighbors belongs to the
same Farmers Cooperative Buying
club with me- We-some forty of us
bunch" our orders and buy our sup
plies at wholesale. This neighbor reg
ularly orders fifty pounds of sugar
every month. That means 500 pounds
year. He never buys more or less.
He has been doing this for at least
three years. He has to pay five cents
hundred more for the sugar this way
than he would if he bought in O0-lb.
bags. That's ninety cents he has sim
ply thrown away on a single item in
three years--and he has a big family
wi N ICrv- ~ fv1n
penny he can earn or save. Neither
he nor his wife can see or be made to
see that 500 pounds of sugar can Just
as well be bought in six 10o-lb. lots as
in twelve 50-lb. lots. That is, truly.
very small matter. But all saving
by putting in the small end of the
wedge that one splits the log. 1 have
another neighbOr who recently refused
20 buy FIVE tons of ground feed z,at a
saving over regular retail prices of
more than $40, because he never could
use up SO much. Yet he bought over
five tons of the same stuff at one feed
store the next twelve months and paid
the storekeeper the $40 he might have
kept in his own pocket Furthermore
he had to make at least one trip after
feed when the bin got empty at a
time when his teams work was worth
more to him than the money he ac-
tually lost through the higher price of
the feed. / used to have a neighbor
who would never get up his winter
wood ahead of time. I've known him
over and over again, go to the woods
of a bitter winter morning, cut small
tree and SNAKE it home through the
snow and chop up enough to build the
fire. before he could have his break
fast.
$50 it goes and so it u.s." as Uncle
Isaac used to say. We farmers have
a. rather chance-y job at the best We
have to gamble with the weather and
play pitch and toss with uncertain
markets. It's mighty poor business
for us either deliberately or weakly to
increase the risks we have to face
Instead. it's our business to minimize