St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-05-12

n O11Ens Sdlu OdIu 1OWel,
WI lets go back to the farm
this year"
"Well, 1 do sayv' ex-
claimed Mrs. Powell, smiling. what
ever put that notion into your head,
Sam? / thought we'd had enough OF
farming"
Sam Powell and his mother and a
sister a year younger than Sam lived
on the outskirts of town and made n
scanty living from the sale of butter
and milk afforded by two cows and
eggs and poultry produced on an acre
lot. In addition to this income, the
family also had the rent from a little
farm of twenty acres, which was stu
ated four miles from town. The
amount of the rent, however, was so
small as to be hardly worth mention
ing. Year after year the land became
poorer, and slothful and ignorant ten
ants let the weeds take the crops.
Sam was sixteen, and he and his sister,
Florence, attended the public school
I'm town Their father had been dead
four years. Before that time the fam
lily had lived on the farm just men
toned. But Mr.. Powell had been no
more successful than his neighbors or
the tenants. Not that he hadn't work
ed hard, for there had been no harder
worker in the community than Ed
ward Powell. But something was
lacking. He had been unsuccessful
and the family had suffered many pri-
vations and hardships.
At first the area of the farm had been
$50 acres, but as the farmer got deep
er and deeper in debt he sold it off, a
piece at time, till there were left only
the house and twenty acres. COnsid-
ering that there was no possibility Of
making a living on this amount of
ground, Mr.. Powell would have sold it
also had he been able to find a buyer.
No buyer being at hand, though, the
disheartened farmer moved his family
to town and left it. Two months later
he was stricken with fever and died.
Then the struggle for a living fell on
Mrs. Powell and the two children, for
Sam and Florence were large enough
to be of much help to their mother.
So it was with much surprise that
Mrs. Powell heard Sam express the
wish to go back to the farm. They
lived hard now, it is true, but then it
had been worse. Her own memories
of their days ON the farm were any
thing but pleasant, and she knew that
Sam had not forgotten. Much as she
liked stock and growing things, she
didn't want to go back to that life
again.
1t was Saturday afternoon, and Sam
were bright with the new idea he had
in mind.
Its this way, mother" said Sam.
replying to Mrs. POwell's question and
comment. "Since I've been going to
high school I've learned a whole lot of
new things about farming. They are
not new things, either-just the sim
plest facts about agriculture. Our
teacher says they are the A b C's of
the business, but / never heard of
them till our class began studying The
Elements of Agriculture
That's what they call book farming,
SAM" said Mrs. Powell, land how
farmers would laugh at you if they
heard you talking about it,"
'SOme farmers might, but not all Of
them" Sam replied. Bill GOoge and
Miles Pagan would, because they don't
know anything about it. That's just
how it is. mother. The ones that make
fun of scientific farming don't know
what they're talking about"
"Well, Miles Pagan is a hard work
er. and so was your father. don't
believe anybody ever worked harder or
could do more than them two"
Its not all in hard work, though.
The main thing is in knowing how to
work. We are just now learning how.
Some don't know how yet and won't
try to learn. 1t wasn't fathers fault
that he failed. because no one knew
anything about the new farming then.
But that's why father failed, and Fa-
gan is farming just like father did.
He's got the chance to learn better, |
but won't do it. Bill Googe won't |
work much. Of course, but he'd do lot |
better If he tried the new way"
"What Is this new way? / thought |
farming was farming"
"It would take long time to explain |
II ALL" said Sam. "but It mostly dc |