Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-29
WHY THERE IS A DECLINE. IN FARMING
Written Specially for The BuIletin)

(Written Specially for The Bulletin)
 I can remember when the summers having was all done with hand tools. The grass was mown with scythes; spread from the swath with pitchforks turned over with the same tools; raked into windows with hand rskes etc.
 Now the grass of the same meadows is cut with moving machines; shaken up with tedders; raked with horse-rakes; perhaps loaded with self leaders and unlOaded at the barn with horse-forl1s
 I wrote that phrase, ''the same mead ows," just a little too quick As a matter of cold fact. the meadows aren't the game. The dirt under them and the boundary lines which contain them may be the same. But the meadows them selves are not.
 They're not as big as they used to be Neglect, year after year, of the fence-corners has led to the gradual widening of the hedge-rows till actual acres have been cut off the old meadows area Annual machine mow<eg around stun1ps or stones has resulted in the srringing up at each one of steadily spreading cfump of bushes, thus still farther decreasing the movable acreage. Remissness in the care of ditches has null lifted old drainage plans so that many low-fying spots have reverted to sTamps unsafe to trust horses upon and producing only worthless hay at best
 have daily before my eye two old time meadows which, sixty-ive years ago. aggregated sixty-two acres of smooth 1 level, heavily grassed land, cutting an ex- cellent quality of hay at an average rate of better than two tons to the acre. They were booh what the local farmers call ft.af 10r4 l ,1.-s- for profitable blowing, especially in the l spring. but annually producing heavy yields of sweet, wild grass which stock, cows especially, preferred to timothy or red top.
 At that time every square foot of the l sixty-two acres was gone over with hand 1 tools. as has been said. The scythe- | swfngers picked out the last spear of grass near intrusive stumps or stones ] and, with the heel their Scythes, cut | out any bushes or weeds that might be starting up. Also, they moved into every ] corner of the old rail fences. even reach 1 ing behind stakes to clean up any trash | which might be harboring there They II knew how to keep the points of their l scythes in and the heels down, so that they moved closer and cleaner than any machine can. AS a result these meadows when the last load had been pitched on
 and the last "scatterings' raked up by the boy behind the pitcher, were as clean ! as a hounds tooth and as smooth as a gentlemanss lawn.
 In those days, the farmers themselves
 with the aid from their own families and
 two or three hired men, did the work
 Now they are all dead and gone. TA'
 meadows both have to be cut over b.
 hired help and machines have taken thu places of hand tools Instead of tn sixty-two acres of good grass thy use,
 to contain. the hired men do not fnS 1t feasible to. nov more than thirty acres
 The rest has grown up to hedgerows ana bushes or returnedf Ito swamp. The yieiS
 has fallen off and the QnaHty has deteri
 orated.
 Moreover-and here's he point whicl
 impresses me most sharplys-it takes thu
 1921 hired men with their mosyfng-mS
 chimes and their tedders and their horse
 rakes and their hOrse-forks at the barns
 more days work to go over the thirt!
 acres of lighter and poorer grass thai
 it used to take the old farmers to g
 over sixty-two acres with scythes an, , hand-rakes I know. for I've watche'
 them too many years to be mistaken New you and believe in Progress
 Progress with a capital P. But I'll b hanged I can see where there's bee
 Progress with any sort of a P in tn 4 1 agricultural art as applied to thos
 meadows Instead there has been re 2 trogression and decadence. They hay lost in available acreage, they look rag ged and un4empt ;, they don't produc as much hay per acre mown nor of s good quality. Sixty-five years ago the were held at s10o an acre, when none i. was money and man worked har
 twelve hours for his dollar. Now ther j isn't a farmer who knows them wh would give S25 an acre for then
 though money isn't worth quarter a much in terms of labor as it was then. M Whats the reason? you ask
 Well. little incident occurred last wee Saturday will perhaps suggest clue.
 This was the incident: A neighbC 2 who had been compelled to hire an ou
 side man and team to mow and draw
 his hay found himself at five ocloc
 Saturday afternoon, with full load 0
 the wagon and another full load on tf