Norwich bulletin., 1918-09-20

lows.
 Our farms both lie in 3 trough like valley, this neighbor's and mine The frost which nipped us so sharply did little, damage to crops on higher land, along the shoulders of the mountains and on thestops of rounded hills. On such situations, farmers can afford to plant a little later, having reason to expect a. little longer safe season. Nof do we raise very much corn. So many farmers have had so many crops cut off by premature frostS so many Hines, that only a few of us still continue to plant Those who do so, do so only to supply home needs and with n) ex- pectation of selling it off the farm. All the more reason why those who stick to the crop. from motives both of patriotism and economy, should use all their brains as well as their pains 1 to insure success, so far as they go. 1 know of two other fields, planted about the same time. as mine, which were cut at the same time, with equal | ly matured ears. And I know of at | least three which are today standing 1 in limp, wilted, shrivelled hopeless ness, having on them no mature ears, and the stalks reduced in feeding value l by at least a half from the freezing. | Now, the three farmers to whom those last patches belong are not 1 drivelling idiots. They are not de- void of brains. They have just as good brains and just as available as the other three.
 | Why, in goodness name, don't they use 'em? That's another puzzle which I can't solve.
 There isn't any generally followed
 calling in the world which demands | f1o 0f
 more shrewdness of observation, any
 more keenness Of application, any
 more breadth of vision, any more
 soundness of reason, any more persis-
 tent use of brains than farming. :, Muscle? Yes, of course. Industry l Why, certainly. Stick You bet!
 But neither strength nor industr!
 nor persistence are enough, by them
 selves. They must be co-ordinatet
 and marshaled by brains or they vii
 waste themselves in useless effort
 dissfpate into a fog of failure.
 When anyone writes-as someon
 did, recently-that labor is the onl,
 thing which counts in farming, he i
 talking nonsense. And somethini
 economic heresy. He might just a
 well say that cannon are the onl things needful to win the war.
 What good is d cannon, or ten thou sand cannon, with no shells and Il
 powder to furnish propulsion for tn
 shells? Or what good are cannon an shells and powder, too, without skille
 gunners to calculate the trajector
 and direct the aim
 1 Farming is war, in one sense: a con |. stant battle against opposing force , of nature. It calls for strength an energy and brute force. No one wi s deny that. But it calls. too. for tn } highest knowledge of strategy an tactics, and the most sl1illful contrt ) of such strategic knowledge. 3 We are told, with somewhat tire 5 some frequency. that we farmers al
 quite as essential soldiers of libert, ) and our work quite as vital to th 3 saving of the worlds liberties as ths
 of the drilled armies in France an l ! Flanders. No one of us would for g moment advise the sending of thos g armies into battle except under direC
 ton of trained and able generals. 7 Why should we farmers think V e can win our battles if we simply ser l our legs and arms into the fields, witt [ out the wisest directions our intell e gence can give them what to do whe h they get there?
 s Brawn is an essential :n farmin t But it is just a one-horse team. till
 is hitched up with brains.
 S Reliance upon it, alone, will alwa. V mean "one-horse farming" We 2 r know what sort that is.
 Il THE FARMER.