Norwich bulletin., 1922-04-14
(wrltten Specially For The Bulletin.)

our local grange had a symposium on | One Hundred Years of Farming" re- gently. Some of the old veterans told | Of farming as it was done fifty years ] ago.
 Then the lecturer called on me to tell | how it would be done. fifty years hence. | never graduated from any school of | the prophets but, as loyal patron, could 1 not refuse to do any work duly assign ed. Following is the stab I made at 1t | Perhaps my guesses may suggest some thing to others:
 There are seven days in the week, and seven ages in the life of man; there were seven kine and seven ears of corn in Pharaohs dream there were seven churches of Asia and seven champions of Christendc2o; seven wise men of Greece and seven wonders of the world.
 I can imagine seven developments in farming during the next half-century, all of which are within the range of possi- 1 bility, and towards all of which some sort of start has already been made. Whether any or all of them will actual ize is another proposition. We farmers are rather slow to take a hint, some | times and good many of us like to keep in the rut Some of us, too, are "drefie sot' agin, anything new. But, in view of the amazing changes which have been shown us as occurring in the. last fifty years, we need not be too conservative in listing the possibilities of the coming 1 fifty
 Here are my seven forecasts:
 Fifty years from now every farmer will have his own small hot-house, built 1 in a sheltered nook against the dwelling. with double glass walls and roof, heated | by the house furnace. and used to beat | the climate at it's own game, One-haf will be devoted to the starting of early vegetables and fruits and the growing of be for the flowers which The Missus will
 attend to. There will also be compact; 1 conven kitchen. garden. half of it un- der permanent glass roof for the grow 1 ing of semi-tropical vegetables. like to- matoes. peppers eggplant. Lima beans 1 Waterinelons. etc The whole. garden 1 will ba iFrigaole from overhead water pipes. By these means the present two ] or three months fruitinG season will be heightened by more than half. Moreover, each farm will be equipped with it's own
 complete canning plant, so that all the vegetables and fruits and berries grown 1 at home may also be canned at home 1 for use during the harvestless season. l This will be done, not only from desire for the best but also from motives Of Ieeonomy. At a recent meeting of the big | NlCnlgan tanners ASSOCldlfOU d HFpIl.- nent member declared that the home lmarket was the best in all senses, add ing that there was no reason why any
 housekeeper in Michigan should eyer
 buy a can of vegetables put up outside
 that state. IThey used to say: Sauce
 for the goose is sauce for the gander.
 I maintain that, if home canning is good
 for a. Michigander it is just as good for an eastern gooseD Also. in that wiser
 
 tween the same money put into a. good
 garden and a. good COW. say, the money
 put into. the, garden will pay the biggest
 dividends. And the coming farmer won't
 throw away money, when he sees it. just because it's too much trouble to put it ir
 his, rocket!
 2-.Fifty years from now. the farmer
 won't have to leave any field unworket
 because the soil has run out and h. : hasn't manure enough to fertilize it. Bl that time the new agriculture whicf
 Prof. Esten of Connecticut has alreadl
 demonstrated for six years on five acre! d of abandoned pasture in that state wll : have been universally accepted, and tn benefcent soil bacteria, whose activitie!
 he has regulated and appropriated, vii be relied upon to restore lost fertility l ] maintain present fertility, and increas' l future fertility These bacteria. who's
 work in the past ages has made practi ! cally all the fertility in the existing soils ] are today ready to manufacture for an!
 farmer who will, in Esten'ss words, Urea them white.' in his own dirt and a. yer,
 trifling cost, all the four essential ant 5 usually lacking clements of plant-growth viz: nitrogen. potash lime and phos phates. That much is now known anr
 has been demonstrated. Still more wil : be known fifty years hence. and the far ' mer's control of these wonderful fertil ] fty manufacturers will be vastly widen
 ed He won't have to give over a desire, n crop because his land is worn out anC c he hasn't manure and can't afford com ! mercial fertilizer to make it productive 0 He will simply turn few billion bac ,, teria into it and they'll do the job fo : him and be tickled to death at tn 7 chance.
 3.-The farmer of fifty years henc : Twin do most of his work with smal . tractors, each as cheap as a horse, a :, handy of control and much more econ 7 omical to maintain. Not that I know O any such tractors. now. But the sam lperiod which in the past. has seen tn moving machine develop from clunsy : costly and pit1fully awkward bungfe [ 2 it's present compact enciency-that sam z period Tn the future ought to result in . tractor which shall be able to blow an
 harrow and cultivate and nov and di potatoes and haul loads over any sort O
 road or field or woodland. Henry For
 isn't the Last Man. There are going t
 be others, just as inventive, just as goo
 Emeehan1cs, and just as foresighted he
 Moreover. they'll have better tools and , wider knowledge to work with. An = ktheyll do things which would make hi a eyes stiok out if lie could live lon
 enough to ss9 them
 f 4.-By that time people will have dis ' covered what asses they've been in turn e ing their backs on the tremendous va l. runs They will have led together tn d waters of every rivulet capable of devel | oping One+Cat power, will have damme ,, every stream Of size-those of then |, which. permit with dam below dam. S
 that the flowing water shall be used a . every foot of its fall. From these power e stations, most of them individuall e but aggregating an incalculable horse t power, will be sent out electrical current :. which will light and heat every farm
 house, and furnish power for all station - ary farm machinery.
 c 5-Fffty years hence, radio sefvic 9 will be as universal as the telephone i s now. Every farm will have its outfit : Twice a day the farmer will receive tn ', latest weather forecast. He will be no f tif1ed every hour, If need be, of the prog
 ress of storms CT cold waves moving to h wards his farm. Every day he will re ! ceive market quotations from his mar | ket-town Every evening, If he pleases