Norwich bulletin., 1921-06-10

cal products and going without others prevailed throughout pretty near all of New England. Each community was sufficient unto itself. It had to be. for transportation was slow, difficult and ex- pensive. Moreover, few communities were able to export supplies if they wanted to, because everything that could be produced at home was wanted at home. The great corn and wheat lands of the west were then but wild prairies, roamed over by bisons and occasional bands of Indian hunters. Eastern farm CTS couldn't call on them to make up eastern deficiencies. Nor had the tin can and the modern preserving plant yet been discovered.
 can remember going to the black smiths shop with my father to have the old mare shod. We had to wait till the rural smith made the shoes out of bar iron and the nails, too. before he could fit the shoes on. Such things as ready made horse-shoes and machine-made nails had not yet been thought of.
 The few scattering country stores sold sugar and salt and molasses and rum and calico and ginSham and cassimeres and salt codfish and spices and a few similar staples. But for the main part of hN living, the farmer of NesF England and the Middle States seventy years ago depended upon his own acres.
 Nowadays, like the Louisiana farmer with whom we set out, we are lucky if even a dog is a homegrown product We call on all the states of the union for our various needs; nay, more, we requisi- tion the antipodes for their rartties and draft luxuries from the uttermost isles Of the sea The sooop-net of our demands is flung wide over the whole globe. and we take the thousand and one varieties of it's muftifarious catch as nonchalantly as our fathers took the yield of the!r own narrow fields.
 Sometimes, in moments of irritation or of depression, we old fellows say of the old days. "Ah, those were the times" "' But were they?
 It's not a question to be answered 1og- matically and off-haR My own lifs touches at both ends of the road. And , have spent many an hour listening to tales of the past from still older moss backs. I tell you there's something to be said for both sides There are ad- vantages in our present sty!o cf living. there were advt A 1ges in ! ways of our forefathers.
 | Do I want horse shod, now? The blacksmith casts a look at it's hoofs pulls down a set of ready-made shoes from the overhead beams. warns 'em up fits lem, nails 'em on with ma1line-made nails from the keg, turns me loose ir an hour and sends me home. When fath- CT went with his old mare it took i good half day to beat out the shoes fashion the nails and get them on. ever l though the sturdy old blacksmith 1idn' waste any time manicurfng the horse, hoofs, after he'd rasped the rough edges off
 But
 Those old shoes and nails were mad If mighty good iron, selected for its wearing quality by a trained expert They lasted six months fordinary us and, even then, were generally worth re calking and re-setting for another half years. service. But those I get now q weeks steady use on the road.and nail! break and shoes wear paper thin. It. back to the shop, then, for new set al 1 round
 There's no doubt that the modern wa, is better for the blacksmith and the hors shoe factories and the nail shops. I makes them more work and brings ther in more money. But whether it's bette for she farmer is question which mus be considered from another angle.
 Sixty-hve years ago, I was permitted t go with my father while he visited
 woolen factory and picked out the clot
 for an overcoat. Then he visited tai or who measured him and cut out
 paper pattern for the coat. Then moth CT and sister cut the cloth by that pape pattern and made the coat-hand-sewin
 all of it, mind you, Today, if I wan an overcoat I drop into a ready-mad | store trv m two ar 4hreA and norno o,,
 in ten minutes with the coat on my bacl