Norwich bulletin., 1917-04-07
HOW TO RAISE BETTER POTATOES

Cwritten Specially for The Bulletin.)
 For my own part, I don't believe that there IS any always right way in any sort of farming operations.
 There are ways which are better than other ways. That is clear enough to plow ground before planting rath- CT than sow seed on the unturned sward5 The experience of ages has taught us that much. But, having ac- don't believe it's possible, from there on, to lay down rules for cultivation which shall hold good for all sorts of soil on all kinds of farms with ten or eleven million different farmers and nobody knows how many varieties of seed.
 It is one great fault of the so- called scientific farmers and their leaders at the agricultural colleges and experiment stations that they tend to become dogmatic. They are apt to assert, fiatfoOted. that every farmer ought to do so-and-so with such-and-
 This is, after all, not to be wondered at. They are great fellows for making laboratory tests and working out things to the ninth decimal for the
 When they use materials. proven as to chemical purity and level with chemical standards. the reactions
 
 There is an actual mathematical cer- tainty about results x plus all ways makes KY. Two and two always make four. One part of hydrosen and united, always form water. When they use their test-tubes and their delicate balances things always come out "just so." It. is not to be won dered at-it Is only natural that they should tend towards dogmatfc state lnents about reactions in nature and out of doors
 But WE common farmers, who wouldn't know what to do with a test tube if we had one, and who have been pumping up many years against the always unexpected and Unpredict- able tn agricultural performance. -l we are inclined to look with some sus- pfcion on any man who attempts to instruct us on the basis of mere the Ory, or even of theory corroborafed- by
 The proof of the ,AIdding is in the eating The proof of good farming is in it's results.
 The combination of so-many pounds of such-and-such a fertilizer at a cer- tain rate per acre on a n1ucl1y soil IIr4derlaid by boulGer-cIav may work wonders in 1916. The same combina- ton on a light gravel 1oam may do teaspoonfuI OF rainwater. Nay, the same combination, with the same crop, on the very same nucky soil may prove a frizzle in 1917
 Sometimes experienced old farmers i also get into the habit of dogmatizlng 2 bout right methods. from an entirely | different direction They have learned i by long experience how to handle | things on their own farms They have | found the secret Of success--I- e. of ! personal success. They can generally ] raise good crops. even when the neigh l io-s are complaining about having i bad luck with theirs.
 Not unnaturally, again. they get in to a state of mind which tends towards l dogmatfsn1. If their ways have proven wise and right for them. why not for others? And so they gradually come 1 to a point where they are ready to Hay down the law" They are in- ciined to say: "If you'd only do things as I do. you'd get as good results as
 This isn't always from 9 braggart spirit, either It is not infrecuently born Of a sincere wish for the wei fare of their neighbors. and a real to steer them right
 For my own information and be- hoof. I'm always glad to hear what the professors end experiment station people say, and I forgive them. be- forehand, for any and all the superi- fi ority they may assume. If ] can get one really good and workable practi- Id ral suggestion to improve one Of my crops out of twenty pages of labor atory demonstrations and "test-pIat" I'm eager to get it. I'm so much to the good when I've got it. II Similarly. if I can get one equally |, workable hint from some plain farmer man of my own class who has done things and can tell how he did them. Pm eager to get 1t and try it out. It may succeed with me. Even if it |: doesn't the trial may suggest some which, fitting more close II