Norwich bulletin., 1918-10-11

they taken as good care of. They came along slow. He's just beginning to dig some of them.
 And say. you ought to compare the difference between what he is getting and what Will got, To begin with, the ground is so soggy that his pota- toes come out of 1t stuck LID with mud Even when he gets half day without rain to let them lie, they don't dry of. The dirt has to be rubbed off nearly every one before it is put in the basket. Even then they are not clean. They look grirny and the eyes are plastered full of sad-colored dit. The water in which they are washed won't run off clean!
 In addition to which, they're half of them grub-eaten. A good many are mere shells, the insides completely chewed out. Will got his out with comparatively little injury, though this has been the worst season for grubs ever known in this locality Simply because he kept watch and forestaIled the worms work Half of Henry's are worth nothing except to feed pigs with. Furthermore, the chances are that he will lose a good many by rot, putting them into the cellar in their present soaked and muddied state.
 So far as l can see or hear, the two men have very similar potato ground Henry's father, who was d forehanded farmer, used to raise good crops of good tubers on the same fields. BuI Henry dispiritedly opines that there ain't no use of his tTyin' to raise 'eln any more. Soils all run out" he de- eiares
 Living in between the two, as I do I look on and say nothing Hut l l can't help feeling that the trouble isn't so much with the character of
 Henry's soil as with the gray matter in Henry's head.
 Doubtless there are vacations in which man may choose his eime fer work and fix his dates for doing -hings l to suit his own convenience or com fort. But farming isn't one of them. The farmer in my particular neck l O woods must work. not when he'd | like to. but the things which his envi- certain weather gods will let hun. He must do, not the things he'd prefer l to do. but the things which his envir-
 ronment permits him to do with reas- ! onable hope of profit. He must wait l on the weather; dance attendance on the seasons; hunIor the crJchets of his dirt; always be Johnny on- the-spot'
 whenever the spot comes to light l They say that the Lord looks out
 for children and fools. Sometimes He | seems to look out for slack farmers ] Now and then there will be a season
 when even the slowest and laziest and
 most procrastinating will get along about as we'll as anybody. But not
 always. Not usually, even,
 1 The man who keeps a day ahead oi his work always has a days credit to his account in the Bank of Time But 1 the man who is day behind is always
 a debtor for twenty-four hours that
 lie has no assurance of ever being able to make up. He may be able to now and then by some lucky fuke, but tine 1 chances are against him.
 Someone will perhaps say that the
 difference in farmers in this respec is largely a difference in natural dis position. Probably that is so But
 bless us all. is a mans disposition al
 ways his indisputable boss? Is he ul isn't he master of himelf, tncludins his disposition? If he isn't wholly sat is1ed with his disposition, can't ht
 take it by the scruff of the neck ant
 the seat of the pants and turn i 'tother- -side-to?
 He most assuredly can
 If he wants to. That's the only Ireal question involved.
 '' THE FARMER.