Norwich bulletin., 1918-01-18
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER AND PLEASURE

f------ cause he eats our clover and beans; | the tabbit )becauNe he girdles our 1 young trees; the ved squirrel and | chipmunk because they're every | where; the grey squirrel and n1uskrat 1 because they have useful fur; the oc- i casiona1 coon and the artful fox and l the jmalodorous skunk because of the harm they sometimes do us; and, 1 again, perhaps two or three others.
 We generally know pussley and catnip and quack- grass because the pesl1y things force themselves upon us, whether we want 'em or no; we can recognize cowslips or wild spin ach because they're good for greens; burdocks because they catch on our clothes and yellow dock because it's a good Spring medicine;' dandelions and daisies, of course, and, again, very few others which happen to be special pests in our particular local ities.
 We know 8 house-fiy when we see it; mosquito when we heal it; a wasp or bee when we feel it; po- tato-bug and a striped cucumber bee tie because they damage our crops; a cabbage moth because it populates our cabbages with millions of de- structive green worms; a. cut worm because it posters our gardens and a tent caterpillar because it ravages our orchards.
 But we know, and too many of us seem sublimely willing to know, very little about the habits and lives of even these: next to nothing of the numberless other species which do not force themselves on us by active and persistent opposition to our farm ing operations
 Years ago I remember asking an old farmer what was the name of tall weed I had found unusually plentiful in one of his fields. "That?" he re- sponded with unconceaied contempt "Oh, that's some kind of d-d char lock"
 ! I know of several country flower gardens into which the fair owners transplanted roots of the Orange | Hawkweed. when that first appeared | in my neighborhood. They thought it rather a pretty flower, never dreaming that it was one of the worst weed-pests known to parts of New | England.
 | Only by accident did I later learn that the old farmers 'charlock' was the evening primrose; and also the true character of the Orange Hawk
 weed. Perhaps my knowledge of the first did me no practical good, but my discovery of the second has en- abled me, by taking it's scattered col
 onies in hand promptly. to keep my
 own fields fairly free from it.s
 Almost every day in the years open
 season, l see or hear some bird which I do not know. Just as matter of ." T -ich .l | Almost every day, when working in
 my gardens, I come upon. some un-
 known or at least unnamed weed
 You know anything is a weed in an
 onion bed which isn't an onion!
 Merely as a matter of intelligent in- terest wish I knew them all Almost every day in my fields o1
 on my crops I find unknown species of insects. Are they friends or en-
 emies? Are they eating my crops ol T are they eating the bugs which do eat
 my crops? Nine times out of ter
 don't know. Not only as a matter o1
 intelligent interest but for the. sake of crop protection, I wish I did. Heaven pity the man, be he farmer or anything elee3- whose only interes , in life is bound up in getting food or
 
 We have spent most of our time a that occupation, it is true. Our fate! 2 or our faults keep most of our nose! on the gfindstone rather stringently But merely living or getting that witt which to live is a function which W, share in common with every beas [ and bird and bug that flies or run | | or creeps. It is solely an animal pur l suit. And we are something moft and better than mere animals. Aren't we?
 ei Whether a farmer would raise big f ger crops or make more money if h
 knew all his beast bird -bug-wee neighbors I don't know. Or care. n | That he WGuld find a good dea 5 more to interest him in his work a | do know.
 That he would find some of hi Il tasks a little frightened I firmly be . ieve.
 . That he would broaden and ripe = into a mellower manhood I am con
 vinced.
 f Once it was said by very wis = man that Knowledge is power" is a truism to say that even tn l. scrappiest and most unrelated accu mutations of knowledge frequent < come into effective play in practice a concerns. The little item of knowl a edge you pick up today about som :, seemingly trivial matter may say v you steps or trouble or pennies z e some future exigency.
 F But knowledge is something mo, If than power It is wealth Wealth | nr+ inI1 ySo l. eat nor rust corrode nor evil chanc
 destroy. Wealth which cannot I = taken away. because it is inherent i
 and inseparable from it's possessor.
 It is the fnger-post to sucees
 True. It is also the gateway 1
 larger life; the road to fuller content Ii II ment; the stairs climbing to attair II ment.
 We haven't any oe us enough of i
 We can't any of us have to much III it.
 We old farmers are too far along { J., put ourselves to school now. TT IS doors are closing behind us. one, |
 one, and the shadows deepenir
 ahead of us. We have had our da is For it's use or misuse we have pal r are paying, and shall pay the etc | nally fixed price.
 But appeal to all other old fe l. lows whose heads are gray not " put any hindrance in the way ,n younger men: not to sheer at or decl
 any reaching out on their part t. wards wider knowledge: not to ol J. pose but rather to encourage and he ce in all ways possible to us every dawl 1e ing desire shown tin that young,
 generation for fuller understandil
 of and a closer sympathy with all u E. varied forms of Nature. q THE FAPNFER