Norwich bulletin., 1911-10-21

(written Specially For the Bulletin.)
 My neighbor Van Schaick wants to sell out. There is a big board With This Farm for Sale" in black capi- tals tackled on one of the big naples which stands on the lawn and nearest the road.
 If he can sell, he is going out to Ore gon, or Washington, or California, or some other extreme western state.
 We all rather hope, down in the bottom of our souls, that he won't ma a buyer. For he is a good neighbor, q kindly helpful man, a warm friend, an extremely desirable citizen. We cent want him to go. We won't put even a straw in the way of his going, if he insists that he must. But we do privately hope that Providence will so shape things as to keep him with us.
 He has a good sized farm, as eastern farms go.-probaoly 250 or 300 acres. l. includes some outlying land,- pasture, etc. on the mountain, but the main acreage is in compact form in the fertile valley. At least two never failing streams of fresh water run through it. one not far behind the house. one just back of the barns on the other side of the highway. He has a good, roomy, homelike house: at least half-a-d dozen barns and as many sheds: hen-houses. ice-house, fCol-house etc. His land is excep- tionaily easy of cultivation and has been well kept up. It is naturally productive and responds kindly to fertilizing and cultivation. It will pro- duce good crops of almost anything. l have seen silage corn growing in one field near the road. the tassels on which averaged fully six feet above VanSchaick's head as he stood be- tween the rows. And he is all Of six feet tall He also raises good pota- toes and fine oats and barley. About the only cereal crops l never remem- Der having seen on his farm are rye and buckwheat, both classed. here sbouts. as ''poor-land crops His soil IS mostly too good to waste on them.
 He used to have some orchard, but ] believe has found that not very profitable. He is cutting down the old trees and putting the land into hay. His place is also admirably adapted to poultry He has sue ceeded finely with chickens, and has exceptional facilities for raising ducks and geese. He has some dry land which can be relied on to do we'll for him in wet season; and some low-ly ing meadows which do their best when the summer is drouth-y. Last year he had four-acre patch of clover which people came miles to see. It stood as tall as any timothy, and was so thick that it couldn't lodge. When q stalk tried to fall over it brought up against another so near that it machine at it. men had to go ahead with forks and throw back the cut clover to let the machine get at the next swathe.
 I don't know how many tons or loads he got, but when I saw it, cock ed up the next day. the bunches,- good. honest-sized punches, too, were so thick that there wasn't room to drive a wagon between any two of them.
 if ] were a real estate agent, it seems to me that I could get up an absolute 1y truthful advertisement about that farm which would make any farmers mouth water.
 Yet Van Schaick wants to sell it and go west.-to the very westernmost west he can reach.
 Hs has never told me his motive, nor have l thought it discreet to question him. I have said to him that I was sorry to see that For Sale eign. and that I should be tempted to knock it off the big maple. some dark night, if I could be sure that he was asleep and the dog chained up. To which he merely responded, with grin, that he was light sleeper and the dog was always loose, o'nights.
 
 same. as to what is moving him. I think he is just tired of the certain ties of his present ordered life and wants to feel the excitement of new conditions, with something more of chance in them. He is sick of living by the same old road which was there when he was born, and wants to get somewhere that he can make his own road. Also. he hankers after adven- ture. Despite his slow and careful manner of speech and his rather con- servative outside, his soul craves novelty. Also, I suspect.-these are all mere "suspections" anyway-also I suspect that he would like the chance 10 sell occasionally some tremendous big. money making crop, even if he had to go through several intervening years of waiting and dsappointment,- gcme crop that would enable him to carry a big 'wad' in his pocket and to drop a still bigger one into the bank.
 He has read, as we all have, of the