Norwich bulletin., 1917-10-05

as it promises. If two contrasting methods test out about equal in value in the laboratory. the thing to do .s stable and sec which really works better with the dirt or in the cows stomach. Here's this matter of corn siiase and roots, for example. Under andy sis in the laboratory, corn silage in dicates a superior value. But, when a dairy man wants to make a record. he feeds roots. At least so says one dairy expert
 There you have it..
 The cows stomach and the test tube are two different propositions. The dairyman has to look for results to. the COW and not % the test-tube. Practically. he may find it cheaper. considering the cost of labor, etc, to raise and feed silage. That's thing to be determined, not by the an alysable value of the silage but by the results which accrue in the milk pail.
 If he wants to obtain record produc- tion or beat record production, then "it is quite common practice" ao- cording to expert information. for him to feed roots. instead. Because, of course, he finds that they are more likely to help the COW beat the rec ord.
 But it is the cow he appeals to to settle the dispute, you note, not to any theory of feeding nor to any re- port on the protein carbohydrate con-
 That's the thing which impresses me in the whole matter; the admitted ly superior importance, of actual ex- perience in actual farm processes. reasonable" or of what Hooks prom ising' or of what the results ought to be. It's a question of what the re- suits actually are.
 That can be settled only by putting the question right square up to the soil or the animal for defective yer dict.
 It doesn't make much difference whether you're feeding a dairy or growing en-thousand acre peach orchard Of raising few hundred cab bages or planting potatoes: the more better, both for you and for the job. Also, as Joe Allen used to say; The way to find out is by ascertaining." The way to ascertain is to try and try and then try again. It Is to keep On trying till the verdict Is clear and unmistakab1e.
 The agricultural college graduates off-hand assertion is apt to be that old-fasfioned farming was all drudg- cry and small results. Too many. of us horny-handed old hayseeds are prone to sheer at the agricultural col lege's way as mostly splurge.
 Both are wrong. The brash young fellow, full of plausible theories and loaded up with book farming ideas makes a big mistake when he ignores the value of hard-won experience as set forth in the often too dogmatic When he has had more experience, himself, he won't be so confident nor so supercilfous. He will come. as years mellow him, to see that theory of his labor and that. in actual farm ing, unlike charity, he must always let his left hand know what his right hand is doing, so they can work to- gether.
 Likewise, the old farmer who never had much teaching other than what has been pounded into him in the hard school of experience, makes a and all book farming" He does not need to swallow whole all he reads or all he hears. But good has come out of Nazareth, even the Nazareth of the ment plat. It has come, not once or twice, but many times; it will come again.
 The worth of an idea or of a sys- tenn or of a method is not gauged by it's source but by it's accomplishment; not by where it comes from but by how 1t works.
 Who are we, that we should refuse hospitality to wandering knowledge because it didn't come out of our own barn yards? There are hills beyond Pentland and streams beyond Forth There is an infinite ocean of know1- edge outspreading around Us to the uttermost frontiers of unimaginable space. Why should we refuse to go through any door which affords an opening to even one corner of it? :.
 But, when the door opens and we essay to step through, the question whether we shall set foot on solid 1 ground or only on a fog bank still re- l mains. And the only earthly way to | settle that is by trying it.-not with l a tsst-tube but by stepping on it! THE FARMER l CHANGES IN DIRECTORATE nE