Norwich bulletin., 1922-10-20

same sorts of vice as promoters and three card-monte men. ut we have our -outs,
 Putting 1t very, very mildly, don't think we are absolutely perfect, in eith- CT knowledge or grace. Not just vt. Leaving. moral obliquities out of consld- eration, temporarily, I don't think any of us pretend to inpeccable wisdom. We'll go so far as to admit, if properly press ed that we don't always know it all Nor do we always fully carry out even the imperfect ideals we may happen to possess
 was very much struck by one sem tence in a recent article by Dean I)avcil-s port of the Illinois College of Agrieul-5 ture. He was writing about farm and farmers, and declared that he couldn't avoid "the rather pessimistic impression that we are using the results of scien- tific invention and of increasing capi- tai not to strengthen the country as a whole but largely to substitute idle ness for labor and cater to- our appe- tite for ease and luxury.
 In writing this, the dean was not thinking of city folks at all but of farm CTS Furt thermore, it was directly to farm CTS that he was addressing himself. That is to We Us & Co. What answer | 1 own idea about it, anyway?
 remember that we have touched sev- ] eral times on this general subject, in i the course of these rambling Talks of
 ours. We have noted certain specific cases where once well-tilled and clean ly cultivated farms have degenerated into ragged, hedge-roWed, alder-clumped tan- I.gles, simply because it was ''too mach 1 trouble" to blow and mow into the fence corners and close up to intrusive rocks. But now comes the Illinois dean anu says right out iii neetin' that, 4s a whole. we're using the results of mod ern science and invention just to Sub
 sritute idleness for Iabor'.
 That is. those of us who are willing to use such results at all and not pooh
 pood them as 'book-farmin . We're us- ing what should be. opportunities for
 better work as devices to escape work
 we're taking inventions which shEuld tend to more productive labor as schemes
 to foster idleness we're aiming. not at
 Better Farming. but at an Easy snap.
 That seems to be about the gravamen of
 the charge. Do the facts bear it out?
 I was brought up by an old-fashion.
 ed farmer. We had only handtools tc work with in those far<away days. IT
 naylng, Tor instance, we had to cut the x grass with seythes, spread out the swaths and stir up the hay with forks
 rake it with hand-rakes,s etc. The fences around the moving lands were all o rails, laid worm fashion, with stakes a : the corners and heavy riders acros. them. Yet in all the years when tn, fields were cut this way I do not recal single bush or even weed in. any par i of the meadows. We had to cut not only up to the fence lines but into the. cor ners and even behind the sioping stakes
 This was done not only to save the las . wisps of hay, but to make "a clean jol
 of it" Sometimes, when I. boy-fashiol 1 Iwanted to keep up with father and con sequently left a corner or two uncut r. meet sharp rebuke. Do your work thor
 oughly," was his warning Its just "a a important to clean out the corners as i , is to clean up the middle.' This last summer. I had 10 hire m, \ having done, or, rather, let it out ol f shares. The farmer who took the jo Q had moving machine of latest mode 6 tedder. an extra wide horse-rake
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