Norwich bulletin., 1919-11-14
IT IS THE KNoW-HoW WHICH COUNTS


 (Written Specially For The, Bulletin) ,
 Common sense, so- called because it is the most uncommon thing in the world"
 Tho longer I live, the more inclined I am to take as condensed truth this sarcastic outburst of some anonymous satirist. |
 There is plenty of intelligence in the world. This is manifest enough from the shrewd cunning with which @ majority of people conduct their re- latiens, business, social or political with their fellows. But the regular use of common sense, or reason, is so unusual as to ne it's exerciser as marked and noticeable as white blaekbjrd in field of pink daisies. What is this reason" of which we humans boast our possession, and which we so seldom use? Probably there are as many definitions extant as there have been .metaphysiicans since Adam. I've read some dozens or scores in the course of my few and evil days without gaining perfectly satisfactory information from any, or all of them. Most of them require eX- planation and definition more than | the faculty they assume to define. Not being myself a metaphysician I. years ago, formulated kind of a. sort of a. theory to elucidate the workings of reason in such practical phases as are 1 illustrated in farm work and farm life. My idea is that reason is the ca | pacity for understanding the relation ] between cause and effect. And that l reasonable action is action taken, al ways and every time, with regard to I that relation.
 l While not myself especially solicit i ous whether others agree with me or ! not, it may disarm some critics to ob- i serve that several of the big metaphy- | sicians, in the course of their long dis sertations on reason. interject phrases which seem to confirm me. Dugald 1 Stewart for example. defines reason, among other things, as that power by 1 which i've are enabled to combine l means for the attainment of particular ends" Coleridge's idea is that "the l cause perceives; the understanding And Webster defines a reason as ''the efficient cause of actual occurrences or phenomena"
 1 You'll please observe that my thesis
 calls reason capacity for under
 standing the relation between cause 1 and effect" There is big difference l OGlh Seii lll1l ISidlIOI land merely observing it. The animal, often observe it and act on this ob
 servation. But there is no evidence
 that they understand t. I hav' i broken a high-strung COW of kickin: ] while being nlilked by the simple plaI of giving her one stinging blow witt i a whip every time she kicked. Onl! lone, and this in absolute silence. Al ter very few such attentions Olt Brindle discovered that it hurt tt kick. Each kick was followed in stantly by stinging pain on tn Kicking leg. So she avoided the pail by stopping her kicking. She lob served the relation between the cause 1 i. .. the kick, and the effect. i. e. tn pain. But sine didn't understand" i If she had, she would have kicked tn
 whip out of my hand and me off tn milking stool!
 Wen. perhaps this is so. and per , haps it isn't you'll say. But wha has 1t got to do with farming. an
 what earthly practical interest has
 for farmers? I fancy some of you, wh f have been patient enough to reat , thus far, asking that question. - It has more interest for farmers 7 or ought to haye-tflan for any othe 1 set of people in the world. For tw reasons:
 First, because there is no product
 industry followed by man to the sue cess of which a persistent applicatio of the law of cause and effect is so es
 sential as in farming.
 l Second, because there is no class c | workmen who seem to. act. ordinaril! with less understanding or apprecia ] tion of that law. For instance: ] l iy, fl,a ct hou s passed steep hillside fields which wer being plowed. Not for rye or an , cover crop, but as a preparation fo next springs seeding. Now, I am nc s thinking about the much -discusse debate over fall blowing vs. sprin 2 blowing. but of simple question ( ] cause and effect. Being hillside
 down which water always runs whe = there is any tD run. both these field in spring thaws and rains are no liable to be washed and gullied; muc more liable than if left unplowed EN D cry farmer knows this, the two WI ,+ were blowing just as well as you ar s T. When l asked them about it or answered. Why. yes. he sposed tn; was so about the washin'. he hadr II really thought nothin' about 1t. IT . other said that of course I was rigf '' but perhaps it won't wash much tn time"
 seem to remember having told ys | once before about the neighbor WI ,- lost his thousand -bushel onion-b,
 one July by a flood fed by a furio' d down-po on the adjacent hills. The It had been similar floods before whi,
 had gullied that same acre. He kne = any July thunder storm was likely
 bring another: But the land was ri . land handy" So he took his chan
 and lost all his seed and all his m
 nure and all his labor and all
 crop. It was perfectly natural; ju E the inevitable effect of an ever-rea,
 cause. But MT. Onion-Grow \ couldn't understand, or didn't thin \ i anyway, he failed to use his reason; < e. he refused to act in accordance wi
 the law of cause and effect.
 Some years ago another neighb | sold his hillside farm and bought ol E in the valley. On his old place was
 brook running nearly past his bar E with a considerable and fairly regui
 fail. He was brought water to u