Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-07-17

And so on, and so on.
Is it. any wonder that he ism Eget-
ting ahead? Is it any wonder thak
he and his farm are ectually going
want his boys TO be farmery7 Or that
they don't want to be, either?
There's mighty little use In the
world for narrow gauge tracks Atany
more, except down in mines or among
the precipices of the Andes. 1t is
q broad gauge era Things are on a
about as well to be out OF the world
as to be hopelessly behind the times
It is a pity-it is more than a pity,
It is a tragedy that some farmers can't
seem able to broaden out with the
times but still insist on trying to
carry ON their business along the mar
row gauge lines of the past
For-no matter what halfI4nfoTmed
people think or say-there is no calling
on the face OF the earth followed among
men which demands greater breadth
from its, deEotees than farming.
There was a time, long ago. when
each farm was an independent king
dom, self-supporting and practically
self sufficient. It supplied its own
meats and bread and vegetables and
fruits; it furnished it's own textiles
whose kitchen candles could be seen
from its own windows any night
But now even the farmer draws
much of his daily food from far lands.
He calls on Brazil for his coffee at
breakfast, and on Hawaii for the sugar
to sweeten it. His evening tea comes
from Formosa, perhaps, and the -four
in his biscuit from Saskatchewan.
The corn he sells. may very likely be
made in johnnycake in Alaska or into
polenta at Rome. His oats may feed
a cavalry horse in Flanders or go into
scenes for a Scotch BARN in the High
lands.
We are no longer members Of any
little local circles, but true cosmopol-
ties. Our market is the world; our
granary is the continent;i our neigh
bors are the antipodes.
Speaking proportionately, the globe
has grown smaller and we have grown
uncouth." The dreams of a century
ago are the facts Of today. The ideals
of fifty years since are the accomplish
ments OF the present.
Upon no single class of men rests
more imperatively the necessity for
broadening with the broadening times
than upon US farmers. The very fact
that we live on isolated farmsteads
rather than on congeSted avenues
should make us keener to keep level
front with the movement of the age.
The Hub of the universe is not at
Boston nor Is the center of the world
at any city. We of the hills and
farms are nearer that center than any
others. We are closer to the great
world-heart, and can feel its throb-
bings more plainly if we only attend.
Cities are only warts, wens, ex-
crescences. Perhaps they might bet
ter be called the settling pans of civil
ization. They draw upon and draw
from the wider and more important
country of whose laws we are the ex-
Founders; of whose cult We are the
priests; of whose gifts we are the
almonerS.
Nothing human do deem foreign;"
once said an old Roman sage. Nothing
In the world Of humanity, of nature,
of science, of technic art is foreign
to the ideal farmer. He has no right
to be a man Of one idea. He has no
right to limit his interests or SYM
pathies, or to refuse knowledge from
whatever source it may come. He has
no right to stand in the way; no right
to interrupt progress by compelling it
to shift to a narrow-gauge track
every time It comes to his line fence.
! don't mean that he should chase
raInboWs or wade after will O. the.
wtsps, or stock his stable with
gyascutuses and his brains with
chimeras. don't mean that he should
abandon. tried good for INFESTED ex-
perimentation. i don't mean that he
should buy new tools every spring, be-
cause the manufacturers advertise
some wonderful Improvement on the
old ones. I don't mean that he should