Norwich bulletin., 1920-07-09
acres of less than eight acres.

-aIderS Which started, here and there. So they were moved around and left for future attention--the time and disposi- tion for which never came. Next year the alders were &higgsr and there were more of them. At least one-third of that meadow, for these reasons, has been lost to hay production and give over to bush growing. s E
 Four or five miles beyond me is four acre cornfeld. It used to have eight acres in it. There are still eight acres inside its alleged fences, but only half of them are now arabie, for similar req sons to those outlined above. It was plewed last spring with a sulky blow That is. it was plowed at. Some of the sod was turned over and some was tilted on edge and some was just scratched enough to make it mad It was narrowed with a riding harrow, and planted with 8 horse-drawn corn planter Two weeks ago it was "cultivatel'' with four-row t@o-horse cultiyator. From what could judge motoring by it last week-and I slowed down to a creep so as to get a fair obseryation--the rows might average perhaps two or three corn plants to the rod, with about forty auack-grass plants to the foot in between. The corn looked yellow and discouraged. The quack- grass didn't Another object lesson in machine work.
 The simple fact seems to be that we are compelled to use machinery in order to get any work done in any sort of way. It's like the famous old story of the trav- eler asking the small boy who was furi- ously' digging. in field by the roadside what he was digging for. "fWoodchuck," gasped the lad, as he gave a deeper thrust with the spade. But" cried the amazed passer; you don't expect to get him by diggin, do ye?" "Got to,s snort ed inc boy; we're out O meat"
 We've got to use. machines to do so much of our work as they will do, because we're short of strength and help to do the work any other way. Who sups with the devil needs use long spoon" We must use the longest spoon We can find. If it spills half the soup en route to its destination that isn't so much our fault as the fault of the situation in which We find ourselves.
 I'm not starting or trying to start any crusade against farm machinery. I'm supping with His Birthstone Majesty my self, and I'm using just as many and as long spoons as I can get hold of I've got all the machines I can afford to buy and some which I couldn't afford. though I thought I could when I bought them. I'm not poking sticks at anybody else because he uses them.
 Nevertheless, I do not propose to shut my eyes to manifest facts nor try to de- Jude myself into the belief that the ma chimes make better farming possible. They don't
 They make a sort of farming possible where none of any sort would be possible without them But they don't do as good work nor as clean work nor as perna- 1,,a h ,-lr used to be done with simpler tools Up to and within their Limitations. | machines often do tolerably good work. But they have neither brains nor bowels.
 That's the best cultivatoF I ever used, D said a prominent Connecticut farmer to
 me one time, "but a fellows got to keep
 his eye peeled all the time. It'll tear up a, corn plant jest as quick as a weed, if it I gets headed for one"
 Even tie stupidest 'man with the hoe'' i has intelligence to recognize plant from a weed and bowels of compassion to spare i the plant while destroying the weed. But ! the machine, of itself, goes it blind at all i times.
 1 Eve got patch of corn growing this l summer. That is, it is supposed to be | growing, though I'm blessed if I can see
 much progress. It hasn't had a hand hoe
 on it, for the simple reason that I am so i short of help can't get the tirne And 1 it's going to be poor crop. Fifty years | ago, l helped my father, an old-fashioned i farmer, grow corn on that same patch.
 He had no cuitivator-used an old blow l instead. Then the hand. hoes came into play. Each hill was hood around and l what weeds the hoe couldn't reach were pulled out with the fingers This was done at least three times in the season Then the corn was 'llilled up." And the ] resulting crop was invariably a bouncer | He never had any soft corn or thrilled 1 ears. Moreover, he got at least two more rows on each side of the lot, because he could work that much nearer the fences 1 by hand than can with a horse. Again 1 the difference between that corn patch
 today and fifty years ago is largely the
 result of enforced machine work in place
 of hand work.
 1 I shall probably get some corn this l fall. Without the machines I shouldn,t 1 get any, for hand work is no longer pro.
 curable. So much is to the credit of the l machines
 I'm not complaining of them. Instead I'm profoundly thankful for them. They | enable me to make the best of a bad iob
 But it IS bad job, all the same and i there's no use denying it.
 u would be futile folly to kick about l machine farming under existing circun. 1 stances. What I am kicking about is no, the machines but the shiftless pretensf l that they do better work They do not | They do faster. work, and they do more l work, and they do some work when if
 couldn't be done at all without them 1 Furthermore, they make some work keasier. Nor will I question that they oc. casionally make possible production at 2
 temporary money profit which would ne.
 cessitate money loss if undertaken by | hand. -
 Let's give them all the credit wbiet
 belongs to them. But, in the name o,
 common honesty, let's stop this foolish
 talk about their doing better work
 If we haven't the time or the boa,f,
 or the shingles to make first class pig. pen, it's all right to knock something to.
 gether out of old boxes and paper roofins
 and call it. a hog house. But there's ne call for us to brag of our shortcomine | and dilate endiessly on the gleries of the l pig-shack.
 We knew it's a makeshift and VI
 needn't be ashamed of doing the best we can with what we have-er haven't
 But to make a boast of our inability and celebrate our misfortune as a gain is |