Norwich bulletin., 1914-10-31
FARM TOOLS AND FARM PRACTICES

(Written Specially for The Bulletin.)
 The other >-ay an application for di- Vorce was filed in an Indiana court by 9 woman who gave as grounds for asking it the allegation that her hus- band insisted on keeping the blow in the parlor and storing his seed-corn and seed-oats under the bed
 The husband didn't deny it, either. He simply said that his blow was sure to get rusty if left in the barn and that he didn't want to have his seed corn, etc, eaten ID by the mice. He didn't have money enough to build the right kind of protection for them, and so put them in the only places he could find which were safe.
 don't know whether she got her divorce or not. If she did, I .lope she didn't marry for her second a farmer who keeps his blows, moving tree, and has to use all the money sic might otherwise have had for buying a sewing machine and a new stove to keep his stock of farm tools renewed.
 It's an old, old preachment. this about the wisdom of protecting our farm tools. It has been talked and written about since you and I were small boys. And that's sixty years ago in my case; I don't care how long in yours. But it's like some other portions of the moral law. It has to be kept ding -donged into sedless ears each generation and sometimes several times to a generation.
 The parior is hardly to be recom- nended as a regular place for the stor- age of blows. Or corn planters Or cider-barrels. Or potatoes. Yet have a neighbor, a renter who keeps
 
 to, because the cellar freezes and he can't get the owner to fix it up or allow him to do it. So my neighbor buys only a bushel at a time, and keeps them in a receptacle in the din ing room which his wife has covered with some sort of disguise to hide it's real use and make 1t look ike piece of furniture. Both he and she, how ever, propose to divorce themselves from that particular house and it's pernickety owner just as soon as their lease expires.
 It sometimes happens that one hao 10 do things he doesn't really want to. It not infrequently happens that it is wise to do things one doesn't rec1ly want to. This is 8 very much mixed-up world, and we have to take things in it as they are, till we can change them and reform them.
 Which procesc. however desirable, is unfortunately often slow and subject to much hindrance.
 The man who depends upon his blow for his living has or ought to have a deep interest in keeping it in good condition and capable of doing good work. In this Indiana case it seems to have been a disputed point between husband and wife which was of the most vital importance. the blow or tho parlor.
 It really seems as if some sort of compromise might have been reached, outside the divorce ccart. I can't help thinking that there was something more to it. But. anyway. that p1ow had right to be kept from rusting. And any farmer knows that seed-corn has got to be kept from the mice, Somehow. if one wants to raise any next year.
 Seems to me the worst that can be said for this Indiana farmer is that he had a good idea, but carried it a i-e-e-tle too far.
 There are still too many farmers who, despite all the preaching which has been aimed at them, haven't yet got real grip on the idea.
 Among my neighbors are some to whom it is a real pleasure for me to lend tools. They take care of the things, and bring them back as good as when they took them.
 I also have some whom I dread to see drifting in to the farm lane, be- cause they're almost sure to want to borrow something, and their borrow ing means destruction,
 You've all heard the old story about the neighbours boy who brought back to Farmer Jones a basket with both handles torn off and the Bottom out. Say" he called out, here's your old basket. Dad can't use it no more and