Norwich bulletin., 1919-06-20
Written Specially for The Bulletin. Nature is a queer old girl.

Written Specially for The Bulletin.
 Nature is queer old girl.
 I don't mean the Mature" whom the nature -fakers'' write about Nor the Nature" whom the poets idealize Nor the Nature" that the we'll meaning but not always thoroughly informed schoolma' ams teach to their trusting flockS.
 I mean the Nature that we farmers buck up against about thrice three hundred and sixty five times a year.
 Some days she's as delightful com- panion as heart could desire. She smiles on us-fairly beams with radi- ant good nature. There isn't anything we'd like that she doesn't seem eager to grant us. She fairly goes out of her way-or seems toto anticipate our wants and take care of our needs
 On which happy occasions it is my experience that we have especial need to keep our eyes lifting. They have saying in my part of the country when the sky is of apparently infinite depth and cearness, when the distant hills seem nearer than usual and the air is as clear as a washed out vacuum, they have a saying that such day is a weather breeder" Three times out of four it will be followed by storm
 
 nary severity. -
 Similarly, when Nature seems best tempered and most amenable to my wishes, I've found that it is advisable to watch out for the deviltry which have come to feel confident she is planning! Well. old girl. what have you got up your sleeve, now?" That's the thing I feel like saying
 Of course l don't for a minute be- leve that she is deliberately and in- tentionally treacherous. But her ways and her actions are so very mysterious and her changes of front are so very rapid and complete. and her success in knocking over about every plan for tomorrow which one can base on to- days prospects is so customary that the unregenerate rural mind sometimes gets all tangled up in trying to keep tab on her
 It isn't only the weather which is l such a muddle. Every farmer knows i that the weather is a daily if not hour l ly puzzle and bewiderment. But we 1 finally get used to its vagaries. because we have to, and must make the best of | whatever comes. There are other lines l however. along which I confess that l cant follow her route of march.
 Take for illustration, weeds. Now l Il NeSQ FlS Just ItIdIll Oul-Ul. DfdCS l There used to be- couple of pretty gardens. They were young things, one maple and one a beech; both of graceful shape. and. in the summer | affording a pleasant bit of shade al l the end of the row. I hadn't the heart 1 to cut them down. but was. neverthe l less, secretly glad when they both died couple of years ago. and had to be l removed. For they were. in their sit uation, just big weeds. They drew costly fertility from the soil which l otherwise would have fed my corn; and they shaded the surface so as tc keep away from the enfeebled crop the | sunlight which might have given il | fresh heart.
 This last week we've been weedine our onions and carrots and beets etc. 1 crawling along the rows on our hands and knees and pulling out the vouns weeds which no tool or machine vii reach. l have but one seed -dril which is used indiscriminately for al sorts of small seeds. Consequently. i | sometimes happens that few stray seeds of lettuce may be left in tht hopper when I fill it with onion seed Or few onion seeds when I move or to the carrot bed. They go out witt x lettuce plants in an onion row ar, weeds, though just across the garde, path may be rows of lettuce-in whicl any stray onion is. likewise, a weed You see. both are useful and desira bl, plants. But they belong where the, are put. When they come up wher, they are not wanted they are weeds as truly as pussley or chickweed. Perhaps you'll say that isn't a fa statement. because onions and lettuc are food vegetables. while pussley ant chickWeed are not. But don't you banl : too heavily on that nasty assumption Did you ever hear that pussley make one of the most delicious greens" at
 tainable? I know people who prefer i to dandelions or even spinach. An, did you ever see pair of finche
 tearing away for dear life at a stra, plant of chickweed in some garde1 where it isn't common? Those bird
 seem to be crazy for it. If any old
 fashioned reader still has canary il ! a cage try him with some, just to SC if he knows what to do with it.
 l But finches are not folks. you pro ? test. Well. no. not in your eyes o
 mine. But in the eyes of Old Mothe s Nature perhaps they're of some con sideration. Remember what the Mas | l ] to the ground? Don't allow your hu
 man conceit to lead you into any belle
 that you and I are the only toads i
 Natures puddle. She may at times b
 fred in tooth and claw with ravin'
 but there are other times when I vo7
 that she seems to me to show greate
 soliCitude for her birds and four foe
 children than she does for us human Assuming as a working propositio
 that she has some object in view, an
 that there is some far off divine ever
 toward which the whole creatio
 moves" we must couple with that as
 sumption the frank confession that W
 don't know or have even a glimmer : a suspicion as to what that object i
 Until we do. it is simply reasonab
 modesty for us not to take it fc
 granted that everything is tuned u ljust to tickle our ears. We may nt