Norwich bulletin., 1913-03-01
THE PADS AND FASHIONS OF FARMING

(Written Specially for The Bulletin.)
 Farming has it's fads and fashions, as truly as tailoring. Perhaps it would be more strictly accurate to say that farmers have their fadS. and ! each generation takes up some new one Not infrequently, the same gen eration takes up two or three in suc- cession, one after the other
 There are evidences that the com mercial fertilizer fad is beginning to run a little seedy-Bear in mind, please, that there is big difference between fertilizers as fad and fer tilizers used as food. or tonic, or stim- has been rather the thing for the com merciaI fertilizer makers and their paid agents, in and out of the press, to preach the universal efficacy of their mixtures, much as quack advertises his alleged cure aIls. They were going to do everything for every sort of crop on every sort of soil. They were declared to be more effee- tive than farm made manures, easier and cleaner to handle. the cause Of larger and better crops. and more economical in the end. Some farmers who belong to the class which is al ways seeking after something new, and some others who find difficulty in getting farm made manure in. ade- ouate supply have gone into their use rather largely. For some time a good many of them have had success, som chimes striking success. Others, seeing this, took up the habit until it spread very widely and became With many a real fad.
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 But time, which is the only ultimate and unapPea.abie test in things agrl- cultural is apparently bringing about a feeling of doubt among some farm CTS to the entire wisdom of rely ing on bagged chemicals alone to keep IL. Tcxf r two very well written articles in two western farm papers. vigorously at tacking the fertilizer fad. Other things, mere skits or a1lusionS which I have seen during the past year or so indicate that there is a somewhat tendency among practical farmers to question the permanent value of com nercial fertilizers.-Of course, there are plenty of old farmers who have been everlastingly down on 'em from the first: who have sneered at them and at all who tried them I'm not thinking of that set.
 PersonaII~ I'm not bit inclined to criticise thing merely because it is new or strange. The only way fellow ever gets ahead is by taking new steps forward He will never get anywhere by planting himself in a post-hole and staying there. We've used yard manure to grow crops on this farm for hundred and twenty five years. For a time. along in the 1s50's and 1S60's, we also used land it began to play. out, and we all stopped using it. My father and a few others took up guano,-the real, un- treated, unadultered kind. sold just as it was bagged on the Gillian islands. That worked finely for while, till the business interests got hold of it, ground 1t and sifted it and mixed it with dirt and beach sweepings, and 4~A rar4A ,f k.A 6rr1f fns-a a stuff till 1t was beyond the reach of l the ordinary farmer. Then we dropped guano. About that time the ready ] mixed ~complete fertilizers" began to 1 be put on the market We, with others. i began to use them. as freely as we felt we could afford.
 Now, my own personal experience l with them has been somewhat simi- l lar to that of my predecessors with ] did work finely for while. But, l somehow, they don't, of late. seem to i be banning out quite IS well as they 1 used to. [ still use them at times l and on special occasions for special i But I'm beginning to have ] my doubts about whether I could run ] my farm for a course of years on them l alone. Therefore the reading of these l letters I've mentioned. from other I farmers in other states. has interested 1 me. It has shown that I'm not the l only doubting Thomas among the dis i ciples.
 in the old plaster and guano days | my father and grandfather used to 1 apply the stuff to all their fields and for all their crops. Then, as l have said. they stopped using ft altogether They used it as fad and threw it over as fad when tired of 1t. They felt themselves justified in this by the results.-or rather, by the lack or re- suits. Yet I think they erred a little in judgment, right there. There are two or three fields or parts of fields on the place where plaster still works and where I am beginning f to use 1t again, when l can get it.. There are more fields where guane helps a whole lot, and where 1 should 1 use it. more than I dc, if I ceud get it at a reasonable cost and with any l assurance O. it's being the natural, goods. Same with 1