Norwich bulletin., 1911-10-21
He Only Dreams of the Old Home Who Has Left It

some of the newly irrigated lands. He has. seen some of them at first hand when they were at their best And so he is anxious to tear away from the paternal acres, to pull up all his roots and transplant himself into a new and strange soil.
 I'm sorr&:-sorry for my own sake as neighbor, and sorry for him. For I sincerely believe that the chances are against him. If he does sell out and go west it is. of course. possible that he may make a good thing out of it. But it is more probable that he will not. The likelihood is that he will himself be sorry, later, if he now succeeds in having his own way.
 Farming is about the same, essen tially, the world over. It's conditions naturally vary with the parallels of latitude or the meridians of longti- tude. They vary in the same town: they vary on the same farm with diff ferent seasons. But its underlying principles are fairly constant. And success at farming depends, in the final analysis, on the farmer more than Of the farm In other words, it is the individual who counts, rather than the soil ne cultivates. It depends up or the man more than on the dirt.
 
 even the best farmer to become master of any set of conditions. When he does attain to some limited control over those which rule in any one To- cality, he surely has more chances for success in that locality than in some other and strange one. We can ali use the tools we are accustomed to Nore effectively than new and strange devices. The old shoes may not be so trim and shiny as the new ones but we can walk and work better in them.
 Mere change is not necessarily progress. It may be wise: it may as often be unwise. There is such thing as changing bad conditions foi' good ones. There is also such a thing as jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
 All over the east there are farmers, like my neighbor Van Schaick, who are enviouS of the wonderful results which certain western farmers have accomplished. We are all of us in clined to take the good luck stories which get into the papers as of they were the usual thing and not ex- captions. Yet, if we would stop to think. we would see that the very fact of their publication proves that mon everyday happenings which make news but the uncommon and ex- tra aordinary. The one farmer who , makes striking success has his story told and his success chronicled The ninety and nine who just manage to make both ends meet don't get into the papers or the agricultural reports
 The simple truth is that all parts Of the country have some advantages and some disadvantages. We in the east are apt to think of the west as land of golden opportunities. Many 1nr-c irlf Iszf I frankly envious of our eastern markets. We are inclined to think they are better off than we: they com plain because we are better off than they.
 Here is little clipping from west err farm paper. whose editor knows both the east and west, and is can did enough to speak the truth, with out diSparagement to his own home yet without hesitation in admitting its compensating disadvantages:
 Tt is interesting to learn of old friends who have made good in all new locality, and it is pleasant to think of the good times we might nave in some other climate or on ome other kind of farm, but we must not forget that the lure of the big farm, the fruit ranch the mild winters and other far-away things have been fatal to scores where it has drawn one to affiuence."
 Those are frank words, and I'm glad to pass them on for the possible read ing of those wlio think they might go farther and fare better.
 There isn't any new Garden of Eden waiting anywhere for any of us. That Beautiful Isle of Somewhere which the New Jersey governor dislikes as hymn may have place in some cloudland of hope and fancy. But it isn't existent on this rock-ribbed soil covered earth. There is a fly in every pot of our ointment. There is an ''out' to be reckoned with in every body and everything. But it is often wiser and generally safer to bear the ills we have rather than fly to others that we know of If farmer of the west is doing fairly well there;- not as we'll perhaps, as he'd like to do, but as well as the average,-seems to me he had better stay there, and put in his best licks trying to do more with the fields and crops he is most used to. If farmer of the east IS similarly doing fairly well. seems to me he had better stick to his job right where he is. If he cuts loose and gees west he surely will have to change all his methods and meet wholly altered conditions If he should set about even much less drastic cEdnseS Tn ms nome operations, 1t is not unlikely that he might win from his eastern acres all the advantn --. he could hope for from western lands while retaining the market advantages which the western farmer cannot pos sibly have.
 All of this is old talk. trite wisdom. It was expressed centuries ago in the proverb that "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" But some times we forget truth just because it is so old, and overlook it because it