Norwich bulletin., 1918-09-06
THE FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
A SEASON WHICH KNOCKED TRADITIONS AwRY.

t-4 (Written Specially for The Bulletin.)
 My. experiences, the past season. II call it the past'y since it is now so near it's close and it's character has been determined,-my experiences the past season with a lot of farm and garden crops have put me into a state of bewilderment. I'm puzzled; all at sea; out of sight of old landmarks and bothered to find new ones
 With me as with others the spring and early summer we're times of de- preston It was over-cold and over wet The nights gave us frosts, or brought the mercury down. to 54 or 35 ,--so close to frost as to keep our nerves on the jump. The days were overcast and chilly even when it didn't rain,-which it did about half the time.
 remember that we put in pretty nearly all our seeds on guess and a. hope, rather than on faith. The ground was so sodden that it didn't seem reasonable to expect an average germination.
 Yet,-and here's my first puzzle ' all but very few of my seeds came up we'll. To be sure, they were slow about if. And the first shoots looked rather spindling and yellow But they came. That is, the most of them did: l quite as large a proportic2 as on an average year. Some always fail. you know l couldn't see that any more failed this time than usual. For long years l have waited for the ground; to warm up and grow mellow before seeding: supposed it= was es- sential to do so. This time we coul not for the soil didn't get warm and mellow till. weeks after seeding time l had passed. We had to plant and SOW in wet, cold, sticky, almost muddy l dirt
 Yet the seeds came up. They didn't rot, in the ground, as the tra- ditions of past years have told us they would under such conditions.
 While slow in starting and long ir getting. above ground they got there, just the same.'
 Does this mean tl.at we've all beer wasting early spring days, these las two hundred years, waiting for z warm, mellow soil when wet, colo l one would still start the seeds? Doet it mean that the time -honored caution against too early planting, lest tht sprouts rot in the soil has been mere ly a bit of over timidity? Does i mean that next. spring we can plan and SOW in sodden dirt, as we hac to last spring, without risking oul seeds?
 I'm jiggered if l know. It doesn't seem as if all the accum ulated wisdom and experience of ; dozen generations could be so who'll. at fault. Yet if it doesn't mean that what does it mean?
 Please tell me, somebody. | We'll, that wasn't all of it. Whel the seeds had come up and the tim for cultivating had arrived, the wor. was still dripping wet. It rained yes terday, was cold and cloudy today and rained again, tomorrow. A sigh of the sun was an event to make mucI of, like a circus parade. Ana aDou ss frequent. Nevertheless, in half |. day, sometimes half hou: intervals we managed to cultivate And agai the traditions of past farming wen overheard. Instead of mellow dir the teeth Of the tools dug into an threw against the plants sodde churks of wet sol, out of which on could often squeeze the water.
 Yet it didn't seem. to hurt the youn plants. Indeed, we couldn't see bu that it did them about as much goo as usual. They frightened up an took on a deeper color and actual started in to grow as if they wante to.
 In one case, we actually had to g over a whole half-acre and pick tn big Jumps off the hills where tn horse hoe had thrown them. an . pound them up with our own hoes, s cloddy and forhiddine was the soi Yet the -cabbages on that patch gre1 like weeds once things were cleane