Norwich bulletin., 1911-12-30

NWrltten optcid4iy lOI ne buhSth'i
What do you know about alfalfa?
Nothing? 1 know nothing about it,
either.
Let's talk it over,
When ask what you "know," l
mean just that: 1 don't mean what
you have heard somebody else say,
nor what you have read. 1t is said
that we have to walk by faith, not
by sight. Certainly we farmers have
more for faith and hope than any
other set of workmen 1 happen to
know about But, by ginger, a little
real know" ing comes in mighty hali-
dy, whenever we can somehow attain
to that state of gertrude about any
thing, And, whether the fine-spii.-
ming philosophers agree or no. it is gu,
own everyday common sense which
tells us that about the only things we
can really know are those we have
handled and lived with.
The Surest way to know an apple
is to bite it. The surest way to know
an ugly dog is to have him bite you.
I don't happen to know why Il is
that admit zHou don't knoW-any-
thing about alfalfa. The reason L don't
know is that / haven't conditions suit
able for stock raising or dairying, and
that, in the line of farming which my
environment has driven me into, for
age crops are really of about the least
interest to me of any. / have to lay
potatoes and early Sweet-corn and
cabbages. and the like. Some of the
natural grass land which l have is
going to pot, for the simple reason
things, too. and do them both well.
AS the hay is less important to me
than the other things, I'm neglecting
that, first, when things get to the
ed
But, if 1 kept stock and did a milk
or butter business, you may bet your
boots that I'd know something about
almost everything there is going in
the line OF fodder-crops. Including
alfalfa.
Seems to me, from what I read and
near, that there isn't any forage raised
in the civilized world about which
the ideas of people vary so widely as
alfalfa. Some farmers are as enthus
iastic over 1T a young mother over
or invent, words bitter enough no
express their contempt for it,
Now, for fellows like you and |,
who don't really know anything about
it. this curiously antagonistic attitude
of farmers who do know something
about it suggests two things. If a
thousand otherwise sane. sensible.
foresighted and prosperous farmers
agree that, with them, alfalfa is
having a pretty strong suspicion that,
with them. it really is great success.
When another thousand. equally sane
and sensible, who have tried 1t. report
that it Is a miserable and hopeless
failure, we onlookers can't help sus-
pecting that it really has been fail
ure--with them. When we take a
spoonful of the soda of one sorts
the vinegar of the other sorts fail
ure, something effervesces over which
strongly suggests the idea that it isn't
the alfalfa which is different on one
farm from another but that the farms
are different and the farmers unlike.
Now, I've got some land which VIII
bear beans, but not cabbages, and
but won't raise cranberries. There
are farms which, as a whole, are
adapted to stock growing. and other
farms which, a whole, are better
adapted to potato raising. / should be
a dunn idiot If 1 tried TO raise swamp
cranberries up on the thin and yellow
soiled, wind-swept, sun baked bald
1ead of IIrckleberry hill. The crop
wouldn't fit the land. nor the land
fit the crop. But, because that arid
knob won't produce cranberries is not
sufficient reason for all the cranberry
plutocrats of Cape Cod and New Jer-
sey co flood the bogs which have
made them rich, and give up trying to
grow The fruit Some land is good for
:onIe things, and some land is good for
other things, and the kind which is
good for one sometimes isn't worth |
taxes for the other. What's sauce for |
the goose may be sauce for the gan !
der-but what's wise farming for Bill |
Smith up in Woodstock may not al |
wavs be even sensible farming for Tom |
Jones down in Lyme.
There's wide dissimilarity in farms; |
and there's quite as big a difference |
in farmers. That Bill Smith farm may |
be Just a Jim dandy to raise hay and |
clover on with simply beautiful pas |
lures in big acreage. And Bill Smith |
may he the sort of man who loves cat |
tle-likes to work with them and care |
for them and finds pleasure In study |
ing them and smonkeyfng' with them. |
The Tom Jones farm may be daisy 1
to grow straw erries on, but with no !
HONOR DR. KELLY