Norwich bulletin., 1916-05-06
THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS TO HARD AND
 FAST RULES


 exposure and precisely the same cli- mate and seasonal conditions.
 The practical difficulty is that there isn't in the whole length and breadth of the continent another farm entire iy like the editors in all these re- spects. There aren't any two just alike, anywhere.
 Of course a mere line fence doesn't change the soil either side of it, and, no doubt, there are farms where a few | acres of As land south side the line l fence are about the same as B's north | side that fence. But even in the case of such adjoining farms the likeness l isn't apt to be maintained for many rods. As gravel loam will slope down l through sandy loam and diluvium to loam vii rise through alluvial mat 1 ter washed down from the foothills l til it reaches the ledges themselves. Take two farms a mile apart and I they may not have a single square l Ures will be different. Their past l history will be different. They will 1 need quite different management if they are to be made profitable. l For the farmer on one to initiate, l the methods of the farmer on the oth- i CT invites disaster.
 He must find out by himself and for I himself and acre by acre what his l land wants, what it will do naturally l and what it can be made to do by l either eoaxinge or driving. To ask l some other farmer is useless. To ap- peal to an agricultural college or a farm paper is a waste of time. There s | only one that can answer the ques- ticn and only one to whom it should be put. That is the dirt itself. It will always answer if properly asked and answer with absolute hon eSty.
 If you have gumption enough to put l the question right and wisdom enough 1 to read the answer when it is given. time. If you feel a little modest about both these qualities, some professors in some agricultural colleges and some farm editors can often give you sug- l gestive pointers" about just what to ask and how to ask it. They may all l so help you to translate the answer if I when it comes, it is all Greek to you.
 But it's up to YOU, every time, to put the question and take down the
 answer.
 The farm editor to whom have re-
 ferred is very fat-footed in his asser- tion that lime must never be put on
 potato land. It is, he says, the very first Don't" in potato culture. With
 out doubt he is right.-as to his own
 farm, perhaps as to others resembling it in some degree.
 Last year, for reasons which apply
 solely and restrictedly to less than one
 acre of my gardens, I heavily Timed the patch and planted it to potatoes
 all of early varieties.
 It gave me the earliest eatable tubers of any potato-patch in the
 biggest yield at final digging which l have had in fifteen years, and the crop was fauitlessly clear of scab ) grubwork and rot. My neighbor who l planted potatoes just over the fence but did not lime the land, had a pool crop with many rotten ones and they
 were horribly grub eaten. In fact this one patch of mine is the only
 patch I heard of in my neigbborhooC } which wasn't more or less hurt by rot
 last season.
 | Did the lime do all this good? I don't say so, but I do say that i 2 didn't hurt those particular potatoes I on that particular potato-patchi
 On the other hand, the editor ad E vises the use of hen manure. Again f accept, without a single question, tn truth that it works well on his pota . toes. But it is ruin to mine. I hay
 tested it wet seasons and dry, on low
 lands and uplands, and I never ye
 have failed to have it respond with rank growth of tops and of weeds an, : a measly yield of small mis shape : and scabby potatoes.
 Q And there you have itt The edito . finds lime harmful and chicken man T ure helpful on his potatoes. fin t chicken manure poison and lime goo = medicine on mine.
 n What about yours?
 e That's just what you're to find ou f for yourself, and neither the e6ito h nor have any authority or licens ? from your dirt to answer for it.
 vii. talk back for itself in more o
 less outspoken ways if you stick tn a right sort of pins into it in the righ ' places.
 q Other men, with wide experience C # many kinds of soil on many farmi n may have exceedingly useful an \. helpful suggestions to offer you as t -1 what questions you shall ask aau no' s you shall ask them. Such men, if th ' answer the dirt makes you is unintel - Hgib1e to you may often be able | ' supply the clue which will enable 70 1 to translate it.
 a But there's nobody on earth wh is can tell you so certainly what to q F with and for your dirt as the dirt il