Norwich bulletin., 1913-11-15
AN ABLE MAN CREATES A WONDERFUL
FARM

written Specially for The Bulletin.)
Did you ever hear of Edward Nord-
man?
1 never did, till last night, when I
read the story of his farming in that
conservative and trustworthy paper,
The Kansas City Star. I have known
that Kansas City Star for q good
many years, and when it says Its
representative has visited a farm and
seen what is done on it, ! believe it.
For the Star hasn't anything ''yalIer'
about it. in looks or methods or
spirit. 1t is enterprising in it's
hunt after news and current history
as a Burns detective. and as careful
in its publication of the news as an
agricultural college bulletin. It's a
good deal more interesting than a
government report yet quite as trust
worthy.
1t seems that Mr.. Nordman has a
farm nine miles from Amigo, a little
hamlet way up in Northern Wiscon-
sin The Star heard something about
him and sent a man up there to see
If the stories ii had heard were
really true. And upon this man 8
report 1 base the following condensa-
tom
Aordman was teaching school in the
village of Polar. and he fell in love,
first with a young woman of that
place next with the scenery around
the little lake on whose shore Polar
sits. So he married the girl and
bought a farm on the lake, with a, toy
promontory projecting into the water
as the one scenic effect of the
farm When the visitor expressed
wonder why he should ever have
picked such land for a farm, Mr..
Nordman pointed 10 the little cape
and said he chose it because it had
that point sticking out into the lake.
He liked the view
Queer way to pick a farm, Ell?
For il needs to be said, at the out
as rough and stony and hardscrabbly
as one is likely to see in month Of
Sundays
In the first place there wasn't a
fully cleared acre on it when he
bought it. 1t was "cut-over" land,
covered with big stumps and a thick
growth of brush and sapnngs
In the second place it was billy
and hillocky. There isn't a level acre
on il. There isn't today a place
where the plowman can drive a five
rod furrow without going either up
hill or down hill OF on the sidehill.
In the third place It is cut up by
swales, the bottoms of which are
mostly filed with boulders and small
stones
For. in the fourth place. 1t was
originally about as stony as land can
be- without being all rock.
And, in THE fifth place, there are
only sixty acres of it A small farm,
you'll see. even judged by New Eng
land standards
Mr.. Nordman sums up his ideas
about farming in these words: AZ
n - -. - -
that counts: it's the man on the
land"
That seems to have been his spirit
when he bought He began work by
clearing the brush and stuInps, an
acre or two ar a time as he could,
working alone. He had paid only IS
an acre for the place, but it would
have cost him fully $50 an acre more
to hire IL cleared up. He couldn't
AFFORD this. so he did the Job himself,
little al a time. till the whole sixty
acres were cleared. While doing this
he kept chuchdng the loose stones in
10 the s~ales l have mentioned, till
some Of them were pretty near filed
up
Then he divided his sixty acres into
three fields of twenty each, for
three years rotation For q score of
years. now, he has always had twenty
acres in corn, twenty acres in oats,
and twenty acres in clover He does
his principal Flowing in the spring,
because his land is so billy that the
heavy autumn rains would wash the
top soil into the lake. if he plowed
early in the fall And his top soil is
not only very necessary for him but
&c is mighty thin. There wasn't much
of il when he began. What there is
he has mostly made.
Now, before say anything more
about his methods, please catch on
70 a few Of his results
This sixty-acre farm is managed as