Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-01
SENTIMENT CHANGING REGARDING FARM LIFE

GAAkN AAASAA@ASA SeA FAAAAs6kSNS ewritten Specially for The Bulletin). { Oar friends of the big cities want to make sure of snthin to eat next winter. ~, Therefore they are trysrg, in theIr awkward way to get on better terms with the faruier man.
 Z It is their idea of making them selves friends of the Marmon Of Unright in the hope that they may get a few extra measures corn or oil out ef it into their own hahitaticns
 Even the Ne4s Ycrk daily pagers, which reflect pretty fairly the sent mente andI feelings Of the modern Sodom. and Gomorrah, have temper arily ahzndoned their attitude of su pereiiious contempt for farmers and are somewhat c1mbrously frying to set up a platonie sort of filtration Listen, to this, for example, from one Of the most widely circulated of them, z-o1e, also, hitherto almost exclusive ly devoted to cham pionship of Big Business against the world:
 The truth of the declaration that k almost purely matter of science, and exact science at that. has been brougll to the knowledge of the urban public in the last year more than ever would have been possible had there been no war and no patriotie appeal ito the farmer to doSas major part toward Winnig a victorious peace The aver age city eiler, If he ever thought of7the farmer, thougbt of hirpsas lean Fersoa. in high beots. hickory shirt and "gailuses. .nesnd not as a scientist whose success, depended more upon education than brawn. There may be ooca sional By Heck" farmers and a few of the comic paper farmers. mss exist. but they are as. rare as the odd birds in Wall Street.
 The farmer of today, the farmer ewho is feeding the world. if he is to succeed ,.e eD his calling, must be a chemist a biologist. a botanist and, above all else a; mechanical engineer. :
 That last. sentence is simply a rep etiticn of what we've been talking over and over again in this column for To. these many years. Only we, who know by experience what the farmer is annually up. against, haven't I'linited the list of his efficiency re- quirenents to just four lines.
 Chemistry? Of, course: he must know the reactions of his soil to such stimuli as hes can supply, and with behavior of his sprays against both bugs and blight.
 'e Biology? Of course he must know the prenatal secrets of how to breed the right stock in the right way i. and also how to peat at their own game the crows and hawks and ral ! bits and skunlss-four-1egg : ones
 mean,-who are always eonspiring to lrufn his crops. iAnd that last job Elet me mention, is one that requires
 some rather kee,A insight into the habTrs and instincts. of wild creatures ! The book-learned biologist no doubt will describe crow with painstaking
 and almost photographic accuracy o1 l detaI He will also tell you that
 the crow is, very sharp sighted and very cunning. But it is the hayseed- | in -his-hair biologist of the corn ieio , who has got so deep into that crow
 mind as to know that if he strings a i line of twine around and acress his
 corn plat Mir. Crow in the excess o1 his great cunning will say. to him 1 self; Aha, fixin' a trap for me, are fye2 Think | won't eeit. do. yes Ex- pect he to drop right down betWeer 1 those strings and get caught, do ye' i Not. for this particular Jim Crow, thanl
 ye." And takes cawing figh' straight for the Tall Timber, where he stays, till the corn is too big fol him and the strings are taken down
 Botany and mechanical engineering Also of course. ze
 r. But the renuirem Of the sue
 cessful farmer don't stop there Hs | needs to know as we'll something O
 entomology and of geology and al ths-t it is possible for finite humanit, l to know of neterology: he needs, tt
 be psycholngfiist to get and handl. his hired man; a philosopher tt
 face iInpassively the devil and tn,
 deep sea between which he almos ! constantly teeters: something of { 1 carpenter and a blacksmith and a ston, mason. to make the perpetualIy re curing repairs which are needed :: 1 veterinarian and 2 barn midwife :;
 pragnnatist and an ideaiist, both a the same, time; and all the while
 keen and farsighted, business man r Very few farmers combine all ttaest utilities and sciences The fact re
 mains that the farmers success usuall,
 depends bon how nearly he comes u mastery of them. The more he know
 about every. oae. of these things: tn
 greater his chance of winning oul
 The less he knows about them tn harder he's got to work and tn
 smaller must tinewitablys be his hop
 of great success Ssf
 A recent lecturer at one Of the grea
 universities put it this way. "Whef
 but on farm will be found a man s ideePly versed in biology that lie ca; tell by looking .sat g. pig whether hi Y progeny will have the long. deep side
 so desirable for bacon, or the broac
 nat hams that bring high prizes 1inde the name 1Westphafia or. looking "a FcoE he never saw before, ten off hand whether she will be a m ilker 70 more useful as the mother of bee 4 steers?' .s.4
 From which last quotation I beg yo . to notice that it doesn't make al practical difference whether you ca yourself Q s"bfofogisa' or simply stock breeder" so long as you knol
 the why's and the wherefores of ani nal life, A. good many old farmer who can't find words contem ptuou
 enough to express their opinions (
 Biology" and all the other @o1o sies
 are, actualty, better biologists Una the men who write big books about Ii
 They've had to be- in order to suecael
 It's just another case of Tweedledur
 sneering at Tweedledee hey'r twins, but the Man-m-overails won. own it because the other wears stor cfctfles ;
 Which is a pretty small matter t
 squzDbie and get hot about. | l, (. But to eeme back tc4 our text, l
 another New York paper I recend read a moving story of how Mui