Norwich bulletin., 1913-08-09
NATURE SENT BLESSING IN DISGUISE

CWritten Specially for The Bulletin-)
 I read the other evening, news paper item which interested me Per haps il win also prove suggestive to Fame one else
 Vs.. g,ennerz.her that, last spring, they had lot of big freshets out in Ohio and Indiana Dayton, you recall, was devastated and almost washed off the map All through half dozen states but mainly in the two l have mentioned the high water inundated town, flooded farms. and destroyed much property
 The item which l am thinking about tells what Floyd county, Indv farmers haxR discovered since the flood
 They qot it bad. Their fields were covered sometimes with several feet of exceedingly nasty waiter Many Of their fences pig pens, chicken-coops, barns, etc. were carried away Other farmers pig-pens and chicken-coOpS, etc. from unknown reaches up river were lodged on their fields. Also when the water drained off and the mud dried up, they found that an average of five or six inches of sediment was distributed all over their low lands.
 At first they looked upon this de- posit as a blightfng curse. While wet ii was just sticky naStiness: even when dry il spread out in a dead eXpanse of appaTently hopeless barrenneSS. Stir it with a fork or a stick and it ex- haled ,odors which suggested a con- biuatiun of all the bad odors of the Thufe universe. It smeIRd of barn wards and of cess pOOls- of dead fish and sewage; of rotten eggs and skunks in active eruptiOn; and of scores Of ,ottrer more or less unpleasant things. I seemed to the fa1nEEs, for a tune, as if they had not only had thta1r farms ruined, but were in for an out hTeak of epidemic and pestIlence.
 At -East however, so4ne few, who had had experience wifh fiU0ded lowlands in ofher places, began to work the stuff ufUwing it under and opening it to the sweetening aEttun of the sum- light Tine rest gradually followed their example. They wuTiked 1t the best they could and put in their crops. or course, they had no manure and they couldn't do very nice cultivation. They didn't eexp pect much haIt reasoned that half a loaf would be better than no bread.
 Now ffrey are having the biggest snrprEse of their lives. For this mud covered sedinnent-euI;icffed land is rruTlIrci11s such crops as never before were seen or heard of in that vicinity PenuIe there don't know that there's such a thing as a druTlth among their neigfhurs. Tine heat WEfIsh is burn ing up our crops is simply hot-huIIsTng theirs into gigantic growth. They arenf missing their mamEme, for the flood sediment brought and spread for them free gratis, fur nothing, a larger amount of better compounded ferTiffzatiun tiffn any sIStrEoial methods
 
 
 Tn ofErer words, they are finding out that the flood which, at the time, seemed to he an TIfTnTitIgHted evil, really did ffRsm abDut four times as much good as harm.
 It drove them under cover for week or -su, cost fhem some barns and fences and -pfg-Ieens and the like, and forced them to a few days dfet of dried aIufEss and hGmrTrX. That wfns the bad part of it.
 Now, they cam live on Easy Street for the next 'duzssn ,ystsaizss, with nothing to dO but put in their crops, harvest them and GETTY the money to the 4 bank That's the other side of it.
 They SFrpssga+ they 'ueere being 1batted over their heads with a big cEtIh. h. stead of which, they were lbtErfs ihGEosst- ed mp seven flights cod stsfirs to the tOp~fiOpr ef farming success.
 There ere a whole lot of moral les SoEs in uilfs occurrence. which Pm go- ing to let every fellow draw for him. self, aoeSnct5irg to his own views of which eGsle fits best.
 But :tferss iust one practical Susy- i aestion which comes into my nIfnd. ] That is ttiItSs--wflep you're heshpiesssFv Il flat on -ytoslr back at midnight yc0u Can l see more stars than when you're walk \ ing eIScCly tESSsstl the road at noon. H'Csrszs Caesars g4rost.t" l seem to 1 hear ,oare Gf SeOu saSsfng:: '-DOes this j! crazs Farmer call that 8 ''pra6ttcaf ] stlsgearfQn.?"
 Yen, that's just what he does. Be cause as a mere matter of practical l commonplace, every day work, it's a l good deal 1nuue effective to look up < than to -lsSiE cdUwn; to luok ahead than | to book bestfhld: to look out than to !! look in
 Me fa51te5S get too much in the l hs.nt of living in tudays and yesteT- 1 days. Ii wsG,Gi& be better all round, l if NC lived a little more for tomorrow I and Be4~t week.
 This is SESEfte a large world And 1 rheaFls quite a lot of room around it. | Asa4 ES '"gOiaag some, ,N-gofng around l the Sssa a few hundred times faster |