New Britain herald., 1916-02-19

who starts a new business to go sloWly and make his business take care of itself. Some men can do this, and perhaps it is best for them to do it that way. Others have been bred and trained to larger affairs, and even though down and out for the time, they can work better With money than they can with ordinary hand tools. Then again when a man gets to te forty-five he wants to see things start back at once. Every tune ne gets up in the morning he realizes that in five years more he will be fifty years old, and he does not like to postpone the real start until times finger has cut the half century mark on the top of his head. I think that was the way MT Pagan felt, and it is probably well for him that he took his first lesson from fertilizer agent.
 What was a bag of fertilizer but a big contribution box, passed through all the rich places of, the earth, and receiving handful fabm all contribu- tors. It would take man five or ten years to produce these available forms of plant food on that farm through the natural processes of
 
 once with the real thing. This was an argument that appealed to Mr. Pagan. It looked like jumping the farm right back, bouncing it out of the ditch, and then building the foundation under it. The other plan was to build the foundation first, and slower way, and perhaps not any more sure.
 Tn all this we must understand what the financial side of this busi- ness meant. The fertilizer which this agent advised would cost for one acre of potatoes twice as much as the land itself had been bought for. Surely bounce in faith, in imagina- ton, and in character were needed to induce a man to try that It was evident, however, that there was no use trying to raise potatoes on the old plan, and so MT. Pagan took the plunge, plowed up a few acres and started heavy fertilizing.
 Happily he started with a piece of strong upland soil, naturally we'll drained. There were a few beauty spots like this left on the farm where the good grass had hung on in part so that nature had let them alone. r. a CT more of fertilizer to the acre. It would nearly paralyze the bounce in an ordinary man to try to do that in the face of the dismal prophecies so freely offered by the chair warmers. There is one thing, however, about a leader in a new enterprise-in order to lead properly he must know how to follow. When MT. Pagan took ad- vice, he followed it Up to the limit, and he had faith that the ton of fer tilizer would stay by him, and that the soil would stay by the fertilizer.
 It was something of a gamble at best. this spending twice the purchase price of an acre of land for one years fertilizing MT. Pagan took the chance and won out. The cards came his way, for his farm was naturally good, there was a fine mar ]Set close at hand, he could command the capital, and above all he was teachable, ready to go to school to potato plant It cost about fifty cents bushel to raise potatoes Tn that way. You must be able to sell for sixty cents at the least, and know how to figure the increased value of the land, if you ever expect to make farm came back under that system of trusting it absolutely with your money. This is not the only way to bring a farm back, and perhaps not the best way. but it was the way that Joe Pagan did It, ana tld' IS why we tell about it.
 Ever see a man of natural ability and strong capacity put down and ont through misfortunes for which he was not entirely responsible? One dav fate comes along and looks at him. She puts opportunity in front of the man, punches him with his l cid familiar tools then puts them into his hand and says: GO to it." For a time the man is dazed. It does not seem possible for the world has said that opportunity uses her knuckles on a mans door only once
 vet here are his tools, and he knows the kindly face of opportunity only too we'll He is slow and awkward at | first. but the power returns to him
 and he comes back, digging his way l to opportunity.
 l I can think of no better illustration
 to show how Scotts Swamp Farm
 started to come back with that first
 notato crop I can imagine how that l poor discourag ged soil groaned in de- ! spair when Pagan put his blow into l t1at old sod for the first time. Can they not let me die in peace? Why do they stir me up once more | when I have proved so many times l that I have lost my tools and the | skill to work them? Let me alone, I | belong to an old time now drifted away Let me go back into the l tricket and the forest to hide my shame"
 When the Soil Works Up. 1 Yet Pagan kept on blowing, plant ed his potatoes and poured in the fer ! tilizer One bright spring day the soil woke up once more with a thrill Here was omething new. Instead of turning the surface over with a poor