Norwich bulletin., 1918-07-12

think wise for overhead" but these expenses noted already figure up $403 for that acre, all money paid out or blown in before 'tater has been dug. He has got to secure a yield of 403 bushels and sell them at a dollar a bushel before he even gets his money back. As matter of fact, l have never heard of a yield as high as that or even at that rate on selected gar den plats, in this vicinity What price he may get, later, is, of course, highly uncertain. He couldn't get dollar a | bushel for them, now, unless he peddled l them out in peck or single bushel lots. | The point his acre is that it is fancy farming and not commercial farm ing. He is blowing in much money to make a show and win the chance to
 brag. The practical farme! has neither
 the money to do this, nor would it be
 business" for him to try it. He,-
 the practical far,ner,-must plan his
 cropping campaign with an eye first
 farming to raise two hundred bushels
 of potatoes with a profit of $25 on l them than to raise four hundred bushels on the same land at a loss
 of s25.
 To the rich man who merely plays
 at farming and cares nothing for the
 farms income it is a matter of small
 moment whether his potatoes cost him
 more than he can sell them for or not. To the real farmer however,
 that question of cost versus price is
 the very heart and soul of the whole problem.
 It isn't how much he can raise but
 what he can earn by raising it which
 concerns him.
 ! l don't wonder that the average city man thinks he can surely do as well on the farm as the ordinary farmer For the ordinary farmer is not an impressive person, as he is seen, oc- casionally, on city streets. His slow ness of speech, his even slower mental processes, his awkwardness verging sometimes on uncouthness. his com
 bination of credulous simplicity about
 some things and shrewd cunning about
 others naturally enough lead the su- perticial city observer to view him. if not with contempt at least with good natured disparagement. As said by the Toledo editor, many come to regard the farmers trade as unskilled, a
 mere form of minimizing drudgery.
 Nothing can be wider of the truth. Whatever farming may have been
 once, it is now highly specialized I trade or craft The man who thinks
 it is just blowing dirt,-any old dirt; land sowing seeds,--any old seeds, l-has another think coming. Success
 at farming in New England and under
 New England conditions requires a
 degree of experience and practice and } technical skill quite equal to that de- manded by any of the so-called skilled handicrafts.
 There are lots of farmers, you'll say, who haven't these requirements; any
 way, who show no indication of pos
 sessing them.
 True for you. That is just exactly the reason why there are so many
 unsuccessful farmers. Do you or does any city man wants to join their ranks Where's the sense of jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire? The farm is to it's owner ally and servant, or enemy and Boche accord ing as he knows it and is able to : work it. It is a good servant but a : brutal master
 |, The mystery of eternally working chemical action in the soil: the mystery , of germination in the seed; the mys-
 tery of life in the growing plant; the
 all-enveloping. all-developing. an- mastering mystery that we call Ma l ture,-it is only rarely that the most
 experienced and best trained special t ist may peer even a little way into .. their shadows. Yet the farmer lives all his life in their umbrage Failure foredoomed and certain 8 awaits any man who assumes to ig- 5 nore them, or who presumes upon his ability to coerce them. He shal find himself between the upper anC k the neither millstones, and his enc s shall be solely to make grist for tht n earth-gods
 t There are too many men now farm
 ing who are unfit to be farmers tC I make the irruption into the calling O. = other unfit men either desirable ol r tolerable
 l. THE FAR MFR