Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1917-01-13

that same paper had an advertisement
of a home electric lighting system
which was specially intended to sell
to farmers, and which. 1t was claimed.
! wouldn't cost you any more. If as
much, to run as your present kero-
sene bilI-once it was set up IN WORK
ing order. And it wouldn't cost more
than $500 or $500 at the start-on, so
an obiiging agent glibly informed me,
when 1 asked him to figure on the
price of such a system as would llsht
my house completely, and give me a
bulb or two in each of the out-bulld-
ings for occasional use. This, how
ever, didn't include the gasoline tank
| which I'd have to buy and have dug
| in at least forty feet from any build
| ing; nor the gasoline it would take to
| run the engine; nor the soap for
! washing my clothes when the engine
| stalled and had to take it apart to
services, when, having taken it apart,
| 1 couldn't find anything the matter
| except just that it wouldn't run and
1 couldn't be hired to-
| While ! was wondering where |
| could place a mortgage on the old
farm to get my water-supply and my
] heating system and my electric-light
plant, a fourth farm paper drifted in
with a delightfully."- written and pro-
/ fusely illustrated article on 1.-The model
| farm home" of one of its subscribers.
| Lord bless you, he had water sup
\ ply that would not only fill the tea
kettle at one squirt, but would throw
| two-inch stream from a hose over his
| highest chimney, wash off a dirty auto
! with two. jets and one swfpe of the
| sponge, irTigate an acre garden, ard
keep a supply of fresh water constant
| ly before every horse, COW, mule,
| sheep, chicken, cat, dog and chtpmunk
on the place, to say nothing of keep
| ing a duck-pond full with the waste.
And he had a heating system that
Ian, hi hi 10 I'm fTsaa nd
ripen oranges in midwinter right in
his sitting-rcom, If he wanted to.
And he had an electric plant Of his
own which he ran from a pond he had
damned up in one of his many
brooks, which not only gave him over
| a hundred lights. if he wanted to use
so many at one time. but also ample
power to turn the grindstone, run the
sewing machine, churn the butter,
heat the hatirons and brown the toast
at the same time it might be buzzing
up the wood-pile or running the big
threshing- machine.
But that wasn't all, by any manner
of means. He also had a bathroom
finished off in figured tiles, with al
| ways hot and cold water on tap, and
so nice and toaSty that a bath was a
| ter outside the windows was twenty
below zero. He had a hot-house
where he grew melons and cucum
bers and lettuce and such in Deem
=
of concrete, with two silos all of con-
crete. and every COW had her own
private box-stall, with running water
always in front of her and an over
hung manure carrier always behind
her. and she stood all the time in a
foot deeD of leaf-litter brought from
the woods in the fall and renewed
every day. And he had a brick gar
stairs and a certified heating plant
that kept It all at summer ten1pera-
ture. the year round, so that his rad
iatOrs never needed emptying, nor his
engine warming up nor his patience
plaster when he essayed to crank
her" for a joy-ride.
The only things he didn't have that
could think of were q private yacht
to sail round his duck pond. and a
system of automatic umbrellas which
season, whenever the soil was in dan
ger of getting too much slop!
When had fairly got through
swallowing all this account of this
model farm home,' I took a long
water from the old pump in the pan
try
I didn't have to take either salts
or boneset tea, because l live rather
abstemious1y as BELTS my sixty-f1ve
years. and have pretty good health
considering those years. 1 was able
eventually to throw it off, without be-
ing compelled to resort to what might
be termed drastic measures.
But what do you, brother farmer,
think of all this sort of thing? Do
you want electric lights? and a steam
heating plant? and a heavily pres
sured water system? and a bath-tub?
and a septic tank? and so forth and
so on?
If you do-and some of 'em would
be mighty nice and pleasant,-do you
see just exactly how you're going to
get 'en? If you could have them all
or some of them by mortgaging your
farm for all it is worth, do you see
where you're going to insure the in
come to keep them going and pay the
wages you have to for help and the
interest you'd have to on the mort
gage?
If you can't be model farmer
nor have a model" home unless you
do spread out this way; and if you
can't rake or scrape, or make or Dor
row, or beg or steal the money to do
1t with, it looks bad for you, now
doesn't it?
Seems to me we shall, a whole lot
of us, have to keep right on being just
clodhoppers and hayseeds and COM
mon trash.
Speaking seriously and soberIy,
however, it is constant wonder to
farm papers can't appreciate the
stubborn and almost universal fact
that ordinary farmers haven't the
money to pay for all these frilIs; nor
IkiibE3S;E