Norwich bulletin., 1913-06-14

CWritten Specially for The Bulletin.)
 The amount of advice we farmers get in the course of a year is some thing ferce,-to use a bit of Manhat- tan slang.
 Sometimes I think that most men and women were born to be preach CTS, they show such a love for preach ing,-and so little zeal in practice,
 It was once said that literary critic was a man who wasn't able to write, himself, and so undertook to tell oth- CTS how to do so.
 A good many of our most prolific farm advisers write like men who can't farm successfully themselves, and therefore feel qualified to teach the rest of us how to farm.
 Now, if there is any one thing in the world which the working farmer, struggling against daily odds to wiring a living off his acres, would like, it is advice from a fellow farmer who has been through the same mill and has managed to get a good grist. But that fa exactly the kind of advice he doesn't get. The farmer who succeeds at working dirt isn't apt to be handy with pen and ink. He has been spend ing his life with things and isn't adept at handling words. Moreover, know ing how much of aching worry and bitter drudgery has been required A contempt for the unsuccessful neigh bor, whose failure often seems to him due to sloth or inefficiency. He often feels towards such other farmers much as the old hen in the verses may have felt towards the chickens. The story was told something like this,-I quote from memory and can't swear to be- ing verbatim:
 Said one little chicken,
 With a funny little squirn, I wish l could find
 A fat little worm
 Said another little chicken,
 With a quaint little shrug,
 I wish 1 could find
 A nice little bug
 Said another little chicken,
 With f1irt of its tail,
 I wish I could find
 A week. little snail 'Said the old mother hen
 From the dusty garden -patch:- If you want any breakfast COME OUT HERE AND SCRATCH!'
 The old hen had learned by experi- ence that the only way to get daily grub was to work for it, dig it. scratch for it. The farmer who has
 
 working and digging and scratching gravel He hasn't much patience with chickens who stand on one leg and sauawk for worms ,or with farmers who sit on the fence and wish for things which can only be got by hard work. And so the very man who is best informed about his business and possessed of the widest experience is apt to be a rare silent fellow, keep ing his advice till it is asked for and then jerking it out in short and not over lucid phrases.
 They tell the story of two carpenters, one an old fellow who couldn't have drawn plan to save his life, but could build a house or bureau "out of his head" and the other, a young chap who was better at talking than at matching, The young fellow had been told to get out a certain rather pernickety little job and didn't quite know how to go at it. He strolled over to the older man and said: sLijah, how would you lay out so-and-so," naming the work he had been assign ed to. The older man looked up with a grunt: Why, I shd take the square and pencil and mark it out and then saw to the marks he responded. and bent back to his own bench
 Which was exactly what he really would have done: but it didn't help the inquirer much.
 That's one of our troubles: we can't seem to get much helpful advice from those who are best fitted to give it. but We can get tidal waves and Day ton floods of it from gentlemen and ladies who find their tongues or their typewriters easier to use than their l hoes. The other day ] picked up a farm paper and my eye fell on a column of i Hints for Spring" Here were some of them: See that the lawn mower is sharp" i Tighten up the hinges of the farm | gates" Determine that no noxious weeds | shall be allowed to grow on your farm, | this year."
 Clean up the back-yard."
 Give the horses good currying l twice day. They need it most when l changing coats'