Norwich bulletin., 1917-04-14

(Written Speciality fro The BuHein9
 There's no doubt about it:-We farmers are right in the center of the spotlight. this spring. Everybodys S watching us; half the me- anxions Ic io spec spec sriiy, almost all of them somewhat dubiousiy; and a rather undue propor- ton pedagogically, that is to say. schoolmaster-ish-ly.
 For more years than you and l can remember, we've been paid small at tention to by our superior minded and cleaner booted friends of the cities. We have been given clearly to under sand. in more than a hundred way, that our place was in the rear rank of on-lookers at the worlds race-track- that we ought to know enough to keep our place, too; and that, if by. chance some of us did, once in a while. get on to the trotting track, we might ex- pect surely to be placed only among the also ran's."
 But now things are different. The consumers' Kitchens woke up, last winter, to the solemn fact that even farmers were necessary incumbrances on the worlds back. if the world was going to eat potatoes and onions and and cabbages, any more. Later along, as these once plebeian comes6bles scared and scared in value till they
 
 and rubies in the treasure vaults of the cities, this attitude of increased tolerance grew into one of almost re- Epect, tinged with something of nerv- ousness.
 The president of the United States took an early hand by pleading with Farmers to increase their production go that the White House and other iarders could be kept filled without having to sell off the family jewels or cut down the chauffeur's wages Var 1ous bankers and other like "agricuf- tural experts" started out with ''edu- cationar campaigns to teach the same farmers how to farm. It has got so, now, that mayors Of cities and chambers of commerce and railroad companies and a whole lot of others are almost tearfully pleading with farmers to double up or treble up their past production, in order not merely to reduce the high cost of living but to prevent the danger of an actual scarcity of needed food.
 
 Several bia railroads, whose agents have hitherto been accustomed to &C., cep& the tinidly offered shipments of small farmers with either asperfty or unconcealed contempt for the hay seeds, have sent out long and pitifuI appeals to the same farmers to please try and ship more truck this season. If you only wilI,'' say the roads in
 
 you and give you special rates. and run special fast trains, and bring you lzborers free of fare, if we can find any to bring" Etc. etc.
 Even the rnetropelitan newspapers-j I.helisve that Is what the New York sheets call themselves and like to be called by others,-even they are be- and consideration for farmers. The New York Times, whose attention has usuallx been so completely absorbed by Wall street and its more or less amusing menagery as to preclude it from seeing anything in business out side of or foreign to ''the interests, Is beginning to show an interest and even. occasionally, some intelligent Of course. it goes at the thing awk- wardly, as might be expected in one for the first time seeing a. real light on a real problem It suggests. for instance, that small New England farmers might in some way be sup piled with community tractors and other like machinery, to enable them to cultivate more ground and raise more crops.
 We've already had our laugh over those innocent kid-g1oved and glossy booted gentlemen who think that the huge leviathans of power tractors, the level west, could be generally avai1ed of on the small stony, ir- regular-shaped and edge-tiIted patch es which we of the east call fields. Never mind it, now.
 But The Times then goes on to add that tl1e organizers of food abund- ance might pay a bounty for planting, and trust the farmer to raise what he plants. Or they might promise . bounty for bushels sold"
 What do you think of that fellow farmer?
 And then it inserts. a couple of sem tences which show clearly how, at last, even into the gloomy depths of cidfed provinciahsn, is beginning to filter some consciousness of real rural conditions. It says:-
 sThe farmer is of necessity among tde worlds most reckless speculators. His venture is conditioned or the tro1.'
 Isn't that exactly what you and I have been saying to each other, ever since we began talking together? That farming is a steady gamble, depend ent largely for it's winning or losses and weather which, if not governed by chance, are nevertheless absolutely beyond the reach of our control or even of our prediction? Of course, the experienced gambler who has spent his life shun1ing cards has an ad- vantage in some degree over the greenhorn who has never played any lining except old sIedge ana euchre. i Likewise of course, the experienced farmer who has spent his life betting against the weather and whose exist ence depends upon his winnings, has zome slight advantage over the green