Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-16

ping that same question al fnFSGils aul constantly more disappointed than they that l cant find the answer.
 In past Sears, when I was trying io get a living off Il small trucA-garden and essa wing to raise several scores of dif ferent varieties of vegetables to meet the calls of several hundred whimsical GUS toners. I do not remember working win a sing.e crop which invariably succeed ed. Certainly, I can't think of one, at this moment.
 I knew my soil, not only from lct- experience but from repeated chemica, tests I knew 'nv general climatic con ditions. I l,ne about what the various vegetables were likc.y to take from the l soil; about what of these substances the soil contained, and about what my 1 manures and commercial fertilizers SUD- 1 piled. For the manures I had repeatedly i had analysed .and the bouShten fertiliz- i CTS I usually mixed myself on my own barn-foor, in proportions to fit the crops they were to be applied to. Nevertheless. I never ventured. when sowing or planting ;n the spring, to make any forecast of any expected crop h. deed, as experience ripened the only reasonably safe bet it advised was that, whatever I planted of no matter how many varieties. from one-third to one half would prove practical failures-and never could tell which third or half ir was to be till too late to change. Of course, If I could have foretold this. ! would have left that portion implanted But I couldn't. It might be that the very peas upon which I had securely banked for twenty years and the nurture of which I brashly supposed had thoroughly learned would suddenly coi back on me and produce oniy ten bushels of inferior pods where thav ought to have borne a hundred. On the other hand, it might be ths l tho egg-plants which I had been va ly trying for many years 10 get few eggs from would just az incxnlicah,v set. grow and mature bushels Of purple beau ties from the same area which, in former | years. had refused to give up half-a-doz- | en fruits
 One year had so many fine. hig. cur- | dy caul:fowers from less than haif-an- l acre of plants that I filed my market ! and then had loads left I could neither | sell nor give away. The very next year a s.r-i}ar patch, of the same sort, treated as rt.r,y the same as I could rnanage produced me not one single fancy head and only g few dozen that would do" | for pickles.
 Last year. an expert gardener work | ing a few miles from me sold his tor7a-
 
 | couldn't p'cs enough to satisfy the de- | rTand This year that same gardener | tells me hundred and fifty bushels are l today rotting on his vines because he | can't sell them at any price. Small crop last year; whacking biz crop this 1 In my part of the country t''e hay crrp was SD anall this past sun:rp- that many 1 farmers vii! have to sell off their stock l for ,ac5 of winter fodder. But the corn cron is unusually good.
 l Tomatoes are so plenty and Of so high quality that they were drug on tns. 1 market. But potatoes give promise Of ] about the scantiest yield in genera I Gon
 Oats on at least half the farms I 15now were an uttar failure. and below the averaga generally, But rye was sim Div immense.
 That thesc freaks are not local 7-,I | restricted 10 one small district is sug- | eested by the "overaruent's Au~ust corn l reports which indicate that it is go:re 10 be bunEum crop all over the coun- try. August's estimates are for a crop of S.186,000, 900 bushels, which Is only 4s.ooN.oe> bushels less than the coun- try's biggest record.
 Apples: There won't be pint picked anywhere in my vicinity where barrels have b~er harvested in normal seasons Prices indicate that this scarcity is, also widespread
 it~,'
 soiI conditions re"ain about the same year after year With intelligent ro. tation nracticed and tudicious fertfl:za. ton maintained the soil ought to dr about. the same thing, one season w:tf another. It should erow better. in fac-
 Nor are climatic conditio-s grossly different. The seasonal average cr tenn perature and rainfall is ah,g' 're sa7,a Droughts are not usual TO- cte'u~ee fro ouent. According to world records Il. dry weather of 1921 hasn't beer 7sral1e1ed before fr a generation Tn, thirty years or mo-o the avera~a has been fairly alike. Yet cron mutation. have been as striking and as w.7ozprea, in those thirty wears as in the last rw4
 StilI again: How do you account to it~
 Tor one. don't account for it. IT., l beyond me. It's another Of the treuen deus mysteries with which We are no >nly surrounded but in which we are en naeshed and tied un. Once h while like others douhtless. I try to unsnar myself a little. The effort usually result only in an even more homeless entanglo n1ent. Thats because we haven't th right clue. Sometime I feel sure. eithe prolonged study or hanny accident vii nut that clue info the hand Of anothe Newton and he will follow r.
 There are no limits which VIC can plac te the powers Of nature or to the nun Der of her phases. That we understar only two or three is TO reason for deny ing the existence of millions yet un known.
 Every year. every day. almost. bring some new discovery As Newton con few pebbles along the shores Of . Itrr it1ess ocean, the wfsest farmer among | need feel no shame in acknowledgin- 1f cwn tremendous ignorance Tn the W
 regions Of light and electricity no ma
 may dare to say what marvels vet "
 main to be uncovered. Tn both We al
 still but on the threshold.
 Ys 1t not possible that. among the thou
 an6s of yet unknown functions wh.c
 fight and electrically perform, there ma z sometime be found the force which a
 fects plant growths in ways now utter
 inexplicabie?
 Certainly there is something com
 where, which somehow governs Il
 character of our crops-something ou
 side Of and independent of soil an
 weather. IL may be thus far undi
 covered property of the sunlight: It m;
 be an unususpected action of eiectricfy,
 1t may be something still different
 About the ""l~ 4'.'"~ that mal-rS T
 sometimes banker after very long Ii
 is that I'd dearly like to know whi
 farmers will do and how they will do
 thousand or two years hencei