News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-03-17

THE BOY
FARMER
Or a Member of the
Corn Club
~
By ASA PATRICK
Cartwright 1915 nv American Press
By ASA PATRICK
Copyright 1878. by American Press
Association

the horse hitched to the loaded wagon
and the four boys rolled away over The
ggavelly road to the farm.
In an hours time they had reached
their destination. and the horse wa.
Embarrassed and turned loose to grazc
in the field. Sam found the farm in
worse condition than he had expected
and he had expected it to be bad Bri
eEs and bushes and tall grass grew
thick along the rail fence all around
the field. Here and there next to the
ground rails had rotted and allowed
hogs to come in or 90 out at will. The
last tenants hadn't taken any trouble
to mend these gaps, and the hogs that
ian outside had destroyed IL part OF
tke crops for two or three years.
MY. There's certainly some work
to do here" Sam remarked.
whats to doY Fred Martin asked.
"For the first thing Sam replied
this fence row is to clean out, and
then I'll have to cut some poles to put
in the place of those rotten rails"
Let me and Joe cut the poles," said
Fred, while you and Andrew clean
cat the fence row. Where's the ak,
ald how long must the poles be?'
go ahead, Fred. you and joe" broke
in Andrew, smiling. I'VE know you
don't like the looks of these briers and
bushes, but We'll not kick"
You'll find the AK in the wagon
said Sam, and you can cut the poles
the same length as the fence rails. l
think they're about ten feet long" g.
When Fred and Joe had gone down
in the woods Sam brought brier
hook and a sharp grubbing hoe with
which to begin work on the tangled
mass along the fence.
My he exclaimed, "but that's 90
ing to be a woolly job! Those boys
had an eye to business, Andrew, when
they took the chopping. 1t does seem
like there ought to be some easier and
quicker way of doing it than this"
"How long do you think it will take
US" asked Andrew
"Well, l did think at first replied
Sam, that it wouldn't take long. But
now, since I've had second look at
it, l think we won't more than get
started good today"
IF we could burn it out first" sug.
, gested Andrew, 1T wouldn't be nearly
SO bad"
mo, but we'd burn up the fence"
Couldn't we follow along with wa.
ter and put out the rails when they
caught freq
Good for you, Ahdrew"' Sam ex.
claimed That's the very idea. The
fire will burn up nearly all the bushes
and briers and kill all the boil weevils
and other insects that are wintering in
there at the same time. That's why
fence rows ought not to grow up like
this. Insects live in there in winter
and come out to work on the crops in
summer"
'Well, let's get the water and start
our fire. I'm anxious to see how it
works." said Andrew.
Il have two barrels up at the house,
Sam explained. Wen unload the
wagon and go up and haul them down
fnll of water"
The horse was harnessed again, the
manure scattered and the BOYS were
soon back with two barrels of water
and bucket. The fire was started
and allowed to burn only in one direc-
tion-the way the wind carried it.
Sam followed close behind with the
bucket and poured water on the rails
that now and then took fire. Andrew
drove the wagon alongside and refilled
the bucket from the barrels for Sam.
once the fire had got well started it
burned rapidly and in a very short
while it had gone entirely around the
field. Nothing remained of the matted
tangle except a few charred bushes
and coarse briers. Taking the brier
hook and the grubbing hoe. Sam and
Andrew had these all down in less than
an hour.
"Well. that jobs DONE" Sam exclaim-
ed when they had finished, land it
wasn't half as hard as / thought it
was going to be-"
IF we hadn't figured ont a new way
to do it. though. it would have been
hard enough said Andrew.
yes" Sam agreed. I'VE saved lot
of work there by using our minds a
little. 1t doesn't pay TO work without
thinking. and I'm going to mix a little
of it with my work from now on. Let's
drive down after load of poles and
see how the choppers are getting
along"
Hello, there"' yelled Fred Martin
when he saw Sam and his companion
driving up. you haven't deserted
that job. have your
mo" the two replied in un'gon, "of
course we haven't deserted it. We fin
ished it, that's all, and now we're down
after some poles
"Aw. get outr' the two choppers
scoffed. Don't tell Us you've cleared
out that streak Of briers. why. a rab-
bit couldn't get through it"
NO" admitted Sam. I'VE didn't clear
quite all Of it ourselves. but what we
didn't the fire did"
"Oh. you burned II ont. did your
Sure. we nut the fire 20 In and fha