Norwich bulletin., 1919-02-21
Make the Farm Independent and Self Maintaining

acre patch. caanot Alpect to raise
large crops for disposal in big mar
kets. 1t is by small but intelligent
economies rather than by over-am-
bilious out-reachings that we are most
likely to prosper.
We cannot hope to compete in st.
Paul or Chicago markets with era IN
growers who cultivate thousands of
level acres with tractors and twenty
gang plows.
But we can compete with them for
the market our own taGes and our
own horses managers offer US. We can
compete with them for that
and beat them all hollow. both as to
cost and quality of supplies.
1t is our business to take our OPP
portunities as they come to US, wheth-
er we find them wholly desirable or
i not, and make the most and the best
| but too many OF US had been bitten
| by that pesky less trouble" bug, and
had gotten into bad habits.
| The eXigencies of war have taken
US by the scruff of our necks and
shaken some of the nonsense out of
US.
For the lands sake, let's leave it in
| the discard, henceforth ard hereafter!
Here's little editorial I clipped
from a city paper, last night:
Butter may drop in the wholesale
market but that doesn't make butter
any cheaper to the consumer. The wal
is over but not the war prices. High
prices necessitate high wages and
high wages necessitate high prices
More people are longing for farms and
the ability to farm than ever before
Then they Es)uld be able to grow tbei,
own food and laugh at the grocer. L
only they were able to buy land anC
felt that they could make the land pro-
duce when they had bought it, there
wouldn't be any .G2sd Of back to thu
land propaganda. We should all bt
going back to the land without any
urging, content to give UP the whit
lights and the excitement of city lif
in exchange for something to eat"
Do we farmers, many of us, full.
realize the tremendous advantages GU
D position affords us?
Here are city men, smarting unde
the exactions of profiteering dealers
wishing that they were able to bu,
, land and that they knew how to Worl
it, SO they could raise for themseive
something to eat"
, We farmers have the land. We know
how to work it. We know how t
, make it produce food for both tn
, beasts and the human beings who liv
on it. We have the very chanc
which the city men represented b
this solicitant editor are covetous o.
! Big farming problems, involvin
! state or nation wide interests, cal
! doubtless be adequately solved onI
, by big organizations, state or nation
/ wide in their control.
= But here is a personal and who'll
local problem, restricted in it's term
to the Individual farmer.
, Can I stand on my own legs? G
.. must 1 rely on clutches from Dakot
wheat fields and Illinois corn field
+ and Maryland canneries to hold m
lup?"
That's the real question. It has bee
i so enforced upon our attention durin
u the last two years that we can't avoi
seeing it.
Why should any of us want to avoi
: seeing it? Why shouldn't we be gla
n that we have been shaken and prodde
7 out of the lethargy into which "
+ were falling? Why shouldn't "
= brace up" and let the prohteers (
: | commerce know that we're tired
q buying their gasoline for them?
q Why shouldn't we resume the use
d our farms and make them what the
o used to be and may well be again, Sc
= supporting and independent domains
S We can, if we want to. But v
never Will if we slump back into Il
r old vice of considering anything d.
s sirable simply because it is lie
d trouble
n rTrIT FTApNTuP