Norwich bulletin., 1917-07-27

l come Into ms own personal ana prdc-
 tical experience, this particular phase 1 of farm puz2lement had never oc- | cured to him as one of importance. l fancy there are great many in
 a like state Of mind. His failure to l understand was in no sense blame worthy or even criticizable, because he 1 is not farmer, never was and never
 will be. But I suspect, from things l 1 occasionally note, that there are
 some actual farmers living on and | working real farms, who don't con l sider this matter either as seriously i or as intelligently as they should.
 Let me go on with the little farm story which started when l pulled that | luckless potato top, on a casual stroll
 along the patch's edge:
 l On my very next selling trip, to a custome, who asked when I would l : had found and what could probably l bring her. She remarked that her old 1 potatoes were getting so sprouty and | so shrunken- -fabby that she was tired
 of them. She would gladly pay any
 price I wanted for some fresh new | potatoes. So I promised to bring her 1 some, next trip.
 Mentioning the thing to another customer. one with a. large family of l children, I found that her youngsters 1 were especially fond of the little mar 1 5les which most farmers, in digging, 1 don't even trouble to pick up. Even Q- i Cooked and served something after 1 the fashion of green peas they'-o | mighty good" She wanted me to bring | her all I could sift out of that size. 1 Welt, we dug a few pecks, next day: got about a bushel of tubers which, while rather small, would yet "dO" to sell on a pinch to such as craved and could afford such luxuries5
 Then we sorted out two quarts of O Q act T1cr iT7 -f7 about with 8 boys marbles. These for the woman with the children. There were still left on the sorting table something over a peck of but nursery call and too small to grade with salables. The idea occurred to me: Why throw these away? There are women who like new potatoes but a peck for them. Perhaps I might find one who would be willing to take
 the extra bother of preparing the un- dersized things, if she could get them at half-price or less.
 So we put a peck of them also. into a basket and I took them around. Result: I not only sold all the de-
 gently sized potatoes I had dug at
 seventy five cents a peck. but also the
 little marbles at a, considera bly, high
 CT rate, and found, not merely one, but
 several customers who were eager to get the in-between culls al twenty
 five cents a peck.
 That is, I sold every single thing
 in the shape of a potato, big and lit
 tle which came out of the hills the cry cheapest and poorest of them al a rate equivalent to a dollar bushel
 Which, every farmer knows, is Sood deal more than he has been able to average for the fanciest of fancy potatoes during the past twenty years.
 Now, Pm not disposed to say, in the cid cant phrase: Follow me and you'Il wear diamonds"
 I'm not wearng diamonds yet either cn my fingers or in my shirt front or in a nose-ringi
 But, in my narrowly limited line I'm managing to save everything that's sava ble out of my early potato patch On the whole, considering the early and the latter rains and the bugs and the blight and the prospects of rot and some 'steen other things including the threat of lowering prices, I am per sonally inclined to think that, in my particular case, it is wiser to sell the bird I have in hand rather that spec u1ate in futures on wild birds still in the bush.
 Mind you, Pm careful to say that l "an inclined to think" so. I wouldn't dare to say, f1at-footed and open mouthed. that it IS so. Also I am equally careful to say "in my partic- ular case" I wouldn't dare to say so