Norwich bulletin., 1913-04-05
EXPERIENCE MLUNfINES THE WAKE OF LIFE; BUT IT DOESN'T ALWAYS WAKE MEN UP!

CWritten Specially for The Bulletin) I feel very much like scolding, this
 morning. LsHe blaming a lot of folks,
 aud finding fault with 'em, and gen
 erally denouncing 'em.
 The editor of The Bulletin informs
 me that only nine contestants have
 entered in The Bulletins proposed
 corn contest for 1913:-only nine out
 of the fifty which it was stated at the
 start would be required to warrant
 the contest.
 He asks me to announce in this col
 umn that the contest is, therefore
 given up as a failure.
 / hereby do so, as a loyal and obedi-
 ent member of the staff. In doing so. I'm conscious of a curiously mixed feeling in my insides, compounded of
 mingled desire to laugh, to snarl, and to swear.
 This is the second time, at least. that The Bulletin has offered substan- tial prizes in Q corn growing compe- tition. It is the second time that the offer has been ignored by all but a very few.
 Well, The Bulletin will save s230 in good money.-which it was perfectly willing to pay out if such payment would serve as any sort of stimulus to 8 too much neglected farm industry. The Bulletins managers will be. saved q lot of correspondence and other bothersome work.-which they were perfectly willing to do. if thereby they could serve their farm neighbors.
 Several farmers have lost S25, $50 or $100 apiece, and at least fifty have lost the f1llip and excitation to better work which comes to most men through the sense of competition. They've lost an opportunity to measure wits and com pare accomplishments They've lost chance for a widely distributed exper- dment to see what the newer farming methods would do for standard old crop on their old lands.
 According to the last census, there gre 1850 farmers, in Eastern Connecti- out Just nine of them have been moved to join with The Bulletin in this particular try at a spurt of improved farming. Do you wonder that I feel like scoldng?
 But what's the use7 It is true that soft words butter no parsnips. and equally true that hard words build no fences. It's an old saying in law that you can't indict a whole population. Nor can a fellow scoId three counties, in a bunch. It would be worse than the twelfth juryman blaming the other with him. As a rule scolding is a reprehensible practice In the first place, it suggests that the scolder is himself inclined to be bumptious: in the second place, 1t is apt to make the pcolders mad: in the third place, it say that I'm sorry,-blamed sorry,- and let it go at that.
 The other day l read a short Wash In ston dispatch which some of you cnay have seen. too. It seems that agents of the Department of AgricuI- sure all over the country have been Instructed to find out from farmers 1 their attitude towards government aids In farming. Thus far more tran forty 1 In every hundred have answered f1atly 1 that they took no stock in farmers institutes, in demonstration agents, in !! farm papers, in Department of Agri- 1 culture publications, or anything else | except experience" in helping them to | 10 better farming.
 But whose "experience? Just their ] 0wn? That would be absurd. Nobody {. ,an dream that these skepticaI forty 1 >ut-of-the- hundred meant to ignore | Utterly their own fathers experience )r that of all their immediate neigh l ,ol S. The first time any farmer blows ] field he does so because the experi- i 4nce of others has taught him that | blowing is a necessary step in farming. ! The first time he plants a potato or ows 8 row of carrot seed, he does so l because somebody else's experience / las taught him that the only way to ret potatoes and carrots is by putting he seed in the ground. Every farmer must begin farming by following out he rules which other farmers have ound essential. Is 1t reasonable to uppose that, just as soon as he has aised one crop by following the ex- 'erience of others. that minute his wn personal and private experience ecomes his sole and only guide? Is modest or even sensible for him to ssume that his own private expert nee of one year or of fifty years is the ole ard only source from which he nay draw information or suggestions?