Norwich bulletin., 1911-09-09

WoihS udE0 duu long. DOn t dOuDt
 that. But his work is all done by main
 strength and not with judgment He
 has bent his poor old back almost
 into a bow and aged himself prema-
 turely by his abuse of it. The last thing l know he was going all over
 ing out the tred-root'' which has
 sprung up Of late. Perhaps you know
 this weed by some other name: per-
 haps you don't have it. But in this
 neighborhood it has become the pest
 of the year. It's a tall, sprangly weed
 With sort of scratchy top, and a
 reddish root sometimes suggesting the
 garden radish. It has come on with
 us, since the last cultivation of corn and potatoes, and has absolutely taken
 possession of the ground I saw a
 corn patch, the other day. in which the
 stun stood between the rows as high
 as the corn-stalks averaged, and so thick that one could not walk through It, except as he first pushed ahead With his foot and broke it over as one
 breaks over blackberry vines in a
 berry pasture tangle, to make g. path.
 We'll, Hoskins is out in his potato heid, pulling this stuff up by hand
 plant by plant. Some Of the bigge- weeds have stalks an inch in diameter at the butt are five or six feet high, and their roots clinch on to a peck of sticky soil which has to be pulled up with them. To pull a dozen plants at tune makes me puff and twists a very unpleasant kiuk into my verta-
 bral column. But Hoskins has start ca 10 go over four acre field that way. He has an old moving machine which IS too worn to be good at gras.s any more, but which would chop off these weeds well enough. He could go over the whole patch in half a day With that, cut the tops off the weeds so as 10 prevent seeding. expose his potato rows so he could find them to
 dig, and leave the land in much bet
 ter shape for the turning over which
 ought to be done this fall But-he's
 more given to pulling than to think ing, to using his back rather than his brains. He's uncovering a lot of po- tatoes as he pulls the weeds, too and Will have good many green and sun Scalded tubers when he comes to har- vest them. But don't suspect that I'm going to suggest anything to him. I've @ nelgnpored him long enough to know back in my ear if 1 tried that
 Neighbor Waterhouse farms it most !" with his legs, I think. He also has a very tolerable supply of brains but he's exceedingly awkward about using tnen Ills legs are long and Timber and he seems to find them better tools. He will start out to mend a fence With the ax on his shoulder About the second stroke the head will fly off,
 He had forgotten that the wedge was out Back to the shop he'll go and carefully make a new hickory wedge. Ehen once more at the fence. Fifteen minutes later he comes to a bit of .Darbed wire. It needs a few staples. He has forgotten them, so back once more for a dozen which he uses only to find at the last length that wire has broken and he must have the nip perS to twist the ends together, Which means still another trip. I've fre- quently known him to spend more time chasing back and forth after tools whose need little thought would have suggested to him at the outset, than all the time he was able to put on the real job between breakfast and dinner time.
 Now. the farmer who uses his brains 10 save his back and legs isn't lazy,-, he's just wise You may cut that out and paste it in your hat. It isn't orig lnal with me. It's been said before and by bigger men than I. So you needn't take my word for it. Too many of us are overworking our backs danger that any of us will unduly hhFden our brains. They will stand A greater strain than we are likely to put on them. They don't tire easily. I've read of brain flag" But the only cases I've personally seen seemed to me to suggest beer flag rather than than the other thing. And the beer shop isn't handy enough to most farmers to cause them serious danger that way.
 It's another cause for self elf-coneratu- iatIon among ourselves.-the fact that our vocation demands and rewards both brain-work and muscle-work, There are many callings which are one-slded. In some the workman hard ly has to think twice in a year. He does with his hands the work which is set before him, in the way he is told. He does 1t day after day and all the day. His hands become eventually so trained to their task that they go through it almost automatically and with automatic perfection. Such a workman is apt to be an expert,-in his line. Other men work solely with the1r heads, and almost lose the use of their bodies from lack of exercise They have to hunt up forms of work outside their regular occupations, and devote much time to them solely as gymnastics, if they want to keep their physical condition sound
 But the farmer can and should use, every day, every faculty of his mind and every muscle of his body in his regular work. The conditions of his occupation are such as to call for an all round use of all that's in him If he is going to get from his farm all 1t owes him, he must use his arms and his legs and his back and use 'em vigorously. He won't need to have a gymnasium nor to join an athletic club to keep himself physically fit. At the same time, if he is bound to have all that is coming to him. he will keen his brains well stirred up all the time.
 have farmer neishbor who works as steadily and as hard with his hands as any man ought to work. This very season he has sold sS4 worth of hay off one acre which, a few years ago. was neglected pasture of golden rod and five-finger, and which he bought for $7.74. To accomplish this, he had to do a lot of hard physical work. But all the work he ever did in all his life wouldn't have brought about the re- sult if he hadn't, also used his brains to tell him how to work and what work to do.
 A few farmers that l have known have appreciated the importance of this division of work between the head and the hands, but have been unduly of their own mental capacity, and have rather got into the habit of relying on the brains in their state experiment stations. Nor is there any question that some have been much helped in this way. But the ideal farmer is not one who will surrender either part of his work to another. |