Norwich bulletin., 1919-07-25
WHAT MOST ADVICE TO FARMERS REVEALS

(written Specially for The Bulletin.).
3. Practically all the present move
ments to -uplift or educate the farm
ers are engineered and dominated %
| people who do not make their living
by farming.''-RuraI New Yorker:
Glory be. It's delight to welcome
such a confirmation from such a
source of the thing which you and 7
have been talking for 10. these many
years. Tor it is absolutely necessary
i before oneEcan build any sure opinion
concerning them. good many peo-
pie, on the farms and OFF them. wonder
occasionally at the slow advance in
| farming efficiency, considering the
vast amount of advice and 1nforIna-
ton and legislation which is aimed at
the farmer.
Well, if you'll simply take that above
| quoted fact as a starter and proceed
J logically in a direct line therefrom,
you'll very soon discover exactly why
the usual movement to'.uplift and ed
ucate" the farmer never gets any
/ where.
Also. why no other movements. sim
| iiarly conceived and executed. will
never get anywhere
! Also, how any thoughtful man with
| reasonable intelligence and conn
! mendable amount of modesty must
see at the first glance why they ought
mot to get anywhere. @4P
| There need be no question raised as
! to their honesty of purpose, or, as to
| the sincerity of their sponsors We
! can afford to admit all that. We can
/ afford to admit that thy mean well.
For they mostly do. =
/ But
! When your watch gets out eF order
you take it to a skilled and xperi-
! enced matchmaker for repairs. don't
| you? You don't take it to the car
! penter or the blacksmith. Both of
i these neighbors are we'll meaning men.
The trouble is that they are not expert
watchmakers. When that watch won't
! run and you can't make it run. the
help you call is that of a man who
/ knows watches1-their materials. their
construction, their modus operandf.
/ their crinkums- crankums; 1t isn't
. sincerity or honesty of purpose or
peighborliness that you need most in
! that Emergency.
1t is the know-How.
Similarly, when your auto sulks and
no amateur doctoring such you are
able to give seems to do any. good, it
is the auto mechanic whom you call in
not the horse doctor nor the lawyer,
though both may be admirable neigh Z
bors and honestly anxious to help you. |
Again, it is the Know-How you ]
need.
Now, farming is vocation in. a !
class by itself. 1t is trade as truly !
as carpenteriRg is trade. 1t is |
craft as truly as watch repairing is n |
! craft. 1t is profession as truly as (
medicine is a profession. 1t is. an art .
a truly as portrait painting is an. art. !
1t is science as truly as chemistry !
and geology and entomology and |
zoology are sciences. And it is |
drudgery and a gamble. at the same |
time. It requires an amount of hard !
work as great any trade; a degree |
of skill as high as any craft; a fullness !
of knowledge beyond what many be- /
lieve: a shrewdness in forecasting CHI |
matte and seasonal conditions that eH- /
ceeds that of the governments me- !
teorclogists: and a gamblers. readiness
to take chances" day by day and
year after year. |
1t is an occupation Whlcn can sonly |
be learned by long and continuous
evrer.ence.
Books can help-a little. Advice is
sometimes worth a little. But, as the I
old Roman said Of his shoe: No one
of YOU knows where it pinches. SO |
it is true that no one but the actual
farmer knows what is the matter with |
farming.
Nor will any remedy worth one sec !
ond's consideration ever be found for |
farming ills till it comes from the real
working farmers of the country 1t
must be something to fit actual farm /
ever can know those conditions except
the man who lives in them and with |
them or too often: under them.
oh, get SO deadly tired. sometimes,
over the vague lucubrations of honest |
and sincere but pitifully ignorant adj i
visers that I want to get out behind /
the barn and kick a mullen stalk!
Because 1 wear the old clothes which
are fitting for the soil worker. why
should the man who wears creased
pants and polished boots think he is I
capable of giving me points IN farm
ing? Why should he think L need
help. so as to wear better clothes? /
don't want better clothes for wedding |
onions or forking manure or digging
those or the dozen other similar farm
tasks with my best Sunday to
meetin' suit on. it would, get baggy-l
lneed and edge-frayed and dirt-in
crusted in less than no time.
One set of outside critics try to help
keeping accounts. It's a curious thing.
but never yet happened to meet one
single working farmer who ever joined
in that crusade. Nor do I believe any
make bookkeeping sort of shibo-
leth." would continue to parrot it, after
they had had about five years expert
ence in earning their own living on
farm In some cases there is no doubt
that account keeping is helpful. But |
in average farming. there is no such
thing possible as accurate bookkeep-
ing Too many things have to be done
by- guess-work and left to chance.
c-nt res an irregular patch back OF
nv barn containing pertains three
o1,f5 tiers of an acre-thoueh only
skilled surveyor and mathema ticiar
could measure it exactly--on which |
are or have been growing lettuce anr
radishes and spinach and turnips am
caulifiower and cucumherss and pen
pers and eggplant and beans ~
popcorn and carrots and parsnfp
and satisfy and parsley and gasparagu
AVID weedst
I'll defy any booklzeeper who ey.g i
lived to keep an accurate. account VT |
each one of those small crops char
ing each with its due share of az
pense and giving each its earned pro
portion of income. Even if he con-
do it. his salary for the fob woul
more than use uo all the profits!
Another set of outside advisers a.
urging as a relief from the pinchip
farm labor shorta sc. that farmc'
adept the eight hour Gay. There -
undoubtedly. cases where this nil
be done But there are vastly mo
where it couldn't be done--wherc. q
would be as impossible as to mai
In hroQlS