Norwich bulletin., 1911-12-02
The Blind Leading the Blind Not the Way to Success

Cwritten Specially for The Bulietin.)
 They've got up new form of sup- lif-'' for the farmer men, out vest IL really does beat all, how much up lifting the poor farmer needs-or some people think he needs.
 This particular scheme consists Of the formation of ''Hundred-Dollars-a an Acre clubs. The idea sought to be conveyed is that any farm ought to ba worth a hundred dollars an acre, and if 1t isn't. something needs doing about it.
 So they are getting up clubs to bring about that highly desirable con summation When l say they, l don't mean the farmers whose unfor- .urate holdings haven't reached that hundred-dollar mark As the 1dea IS unfolded in 8 western farm paper, It is the invention of some or thelf friends from town. Merchants. Bank erE Rich plumbers Business men. The sort who can afford to buy exotic shrubs for their lawns, ana nave d special man to run the lawn mower if the chauffeur is too dtgnihed to as sfst in that way. The sort Of people who sometimes like to play at farm ing, and think, whenever they make n dollar at 1t by accident that they are thenceforth qualified to snow Kan kin how to raise corn ana teacn Terry how to grow potatoes
 The sort who pride themselves es- peciaIIy on their business ab1ilty; who make business the object of their lives and the deity of their re- Iison: men who have cancelled the Ten Commandments and written across them the One Great Command ment; Thou Shalt Do Business.
 They are qoinq to carry light this revised form of the moral law to the benighIed and incapable farmers Of their immediate vicinity. The plan
 rle T1oe far ayS into joining these clubs-and paying dues I suppose-so that these modest business men from town can come out occasionally, when they feel like It and the weather isn't right for goif and there are no bridge parties due and the bubble wagons are in order, and explain to the aforesaid farmers Just where they are failing to get the best from their land and just how they can be more business like"
 Now, isn't this good of them7 It re- minds me of the style of the First Reader of my childhood days: Is not the business man good to the poor farm-er2 How grateful the poor farmer should bel" Etc. and so forth.
 suppose an acre is worth a hun dred dollars when it will produce, right along, crops which first will pay for seeds and fertilizers and labor and taxes. and then add about six per cent. interest on the $100- IT that De correct, then I should be tickled the whole length of my dorsal column 1T some of these benefactors would hap pen along and tell me how to make one certain acre of my small farm worth that even hundred. At present, judging from such returns as l have succeeded in getting from 1t during the past twenty years l should say that it was worth just about 37 1-2
 Iz fRn poor to grow beans profitably-too poor even for pusley. The only vege- tation it seems to produce willingly consists of quack grass and green am srantn, or red-rooo, or plgWeed, as II is var1ousiy called
 Perhaps the application of 'busi- ness methods to that miserable acre might result in startling eruptions of salable produce Thus far have con fined myself to fertilization and tillage I shouldn't have done that, but for rhe fact that the wretched patch is right in the middle of my garden and in such shape that it is impracticable to blow around it and leave it alone. If l felt any real confidence that the application of business" to it, in stead of the crude manurings and cul- Iivations have given, would bring it up to the average condition of the rest of the gardens, why, l should be tempted to try the thing
 Thus far, however, haven't had any advice from that source which has seemed worth following.
 Yet, the editor of the western farm paper from which l get my informa ton about the formation Of the Hun dred- -DolIars-an-Acre clubs gushes quite copiously over the chance they are going to afford the farmer to learn from his wise neighbors of the cities.
 As have said, it does beat all how anxious some of our town friends are to uplifL us-in almost every other way than paying fair prices for our products The other day a neighbor of mine, living near little hamlet five miles away, sent a. certain commission house in the big city a. cons gnment Of apples When his returns came back, he found that, after furnishing the apples and the barrels and the labor of picking and packing and hauling to the railroad he still owed the com mission house 45 cents for freight
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