Norwich bulletin., 1917-12-07

age of 50.G00, 900 tons :n the country's 8 coal supply.
 We'll, why net7 Why not use at least 50 900 000 more cords of wood for fuel and save that number of tons of coal :? For 1t is stated that one cord of hard wood is equal to a ton of coal in fuel value.
 suppose that, while it may be worth a bit less in others, $ is about the average price Of a cord or good wood, delivered. This makes it more than fifty per cent. cheaper than coal.
 The cost to the average farmer, with a wood-lot of his own and whole winter with nothing else to do but cut it, is just nix, naught,i nuthin.'
 in this home town of mine-probably in yours, alsc,-who buy and burn coal.
 We won't talk at all about city folks. Whether any of them could change profess to know. It is bulkier than coal, and many a city tenement hasn't storage room even for whole ton. of coal at a time. In furnaces, unless it's use is hardly feasible. Where stoves are used, the change to wood burners might be more costly than any probable saving.
 No, we'll leave city folk out of the talk entirely, because their> problems are so different from ours in the coun- try that we can hardly be expected to understand them fully or appreciate all their handicaps.
 But why should we farmers continue to burn coal? Here. also, it won't do to be too sweeping in any arraignment of those who do. Conditions even on neighboring farms, are far from iden- teal That which is one farmers con rnr,yA Avs nr,nr tno travagance aud a discomfort to his next-door neighbor. Also, the per sonal. equation, l. e. the habits and training, even the whims of any fam fly must be considered.
 For instance, ] know one old farm CT, so crippled by rheumatism that he can no longer get out of the house, and whose .to1erahle comfort depends on his having steady heat, who would have to pay for having wood cut and hailed s-sawn and split and brought to his room, the extra cost of coal is not much, however, he can himself, care for the coal fire. almost entirely, without having to call on others for much. assistance. Which freedom from dependence is not to be ignored. t'e-.
 Another sneighhor, who. could get good wood delivered at his door in cerdwood lengths for s a cord, and pays about s9 ton for coal, admits that it's bad economy but pleads that lie can't well help himself. as his wo- men folks are afraid to burn wood. It seems one of them once saw a chimney fire in a house where wood was the fuel.
 In. the course of my inglorious ca reer. I've personally assisted at three chimney fires. One of them was in house where wood was burned; the other two were both in the city, where nothing but coal was ever used. But whats the use of arguing against a. firmly held whirn? One might as profitably expostu1ate with the wood en Indian before a. cigar store! know another who burns coal. sim ply because he's too durn lazy to cut and buck up wood.
 In this particular farm house of ours, we always. used to keep one coal fire going. till the time of, the coal strike in Pennsylvania during Roose- vents administration. That cut off cur coal supply almost without notice, and had Q peculiarly nasty and un- happy time in changing stoves and getting down extra wood from the