Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-04

did, I keep my half-baked criticisms to myself Yet this same editor doesn't | hesitate to mix up in, even render yer dict upon a farming problem of which he i knows quite as little as know of his l newspaper pNnblen.
 There is an old saying which reads l Every man to his trade" And another which bids the shoemaker to stick to his last Older and wiser than either is the | one which says "TNnt teach your grand | mother how to sucn eggs
 What Is there about farming which makes so many untrained city people i think they can give valuable points to farmers in regard to it? Or which makes some of the kindest and best-meaning spend time and money trying to show farmers how to farm?
 Almost invariably the result of their weil-meant incursions into the farm field is a greater or small money loss Yet | the very first dominant and compelling necessity of good farming is that it shall
 make money
 Farming is just as much a business as manufacturing or merchandising. In l fact, farming is both manufacturing and merchandising-and about hundred and | thirty-nine other things. Neither manu- | facturer nor storekeeper long persists in any operation which loses money. Ger 1 tainly he never seeks out such methods
 He never regards them as better busi ] ness" Yet we are asked to believe that
 the management of farm which per I ststenly loses money is Ian example of
 better farming just because its COW
 stables are sweet as a Dutch vrouw's | kitchen, and it's stablemen wear white
 suits, fresh laundered every day.
 Once, years ago. when "miIk shakes"
 were the favorite hot weather drinks at
 soda fountains. I dropped in at such
 place in a neighboring city. The shake I called for was deliciously cool and
 thought of unusually good flavor. Saying
 something of the sort to the soda dis
 penser, he chuckled and said: Yes, it
 ought to be pretty good. We pay Colonel
 Hewlett twelve cents a quart for the
 milk. which is four cents more than the
 ruling price. The colonel says it only
 costs him sixteen cents a quart to pro-
 duce." And he chuckled again.
 I remember thinking to myself. as I
 wiped my mouth and came out, that 1t
 might indeed, be better milk, but was it
 better farming?" If it isn't good busi-
 ness" for merchant to sell bleached
 sheetings for four ce~ts a yard less than
 they cost, is. it 'bet-er farming" for a farmer to sell milk for four cents a quart less than it costs? Yet I learned on in , quiry that this Colonel Hewlett was do- , ing that very thing, year after year, not only with milk but with other products from his fancy farm. And he rather re- sented it that other local farmers, lack 5 ing his over -abounding capital, failed to follow in his footsteps
 I haven't any quarrel with the ricf , man who likes to spend his money play.
 ing at farming. Quite the contrary Ii seems to me a much more interesting thing to spend money on than golfng ol yachting. There are bigger chances tt take and opportunities for the exercise of much greater skill. Nor do I at al object to fancy farms show farms an6 the like. A hundred thousand dollar: laid out in tasteful landscape work or a New England hillside brings much larger results and much more beautiful effects than the same hundred thousand laid out in pinched-up house on a con ' stricted city lot.
 If were rich, I'd have a "show place 1 and don't you forget it! The richer
 was, the more money I'd blow in on it f I'd have barrels and hogsheads of fu1 $ fixing it up and fixing it over
 V But I wouldn't call it a real farm no 4 my amusement real farming. Nor wouIt
 try to soothe any chance regrets ove L. some especially inprovident extrava V sance by pretending to myself that l. was working towards better farming" !"
 If some Of my poorer neighbors hal really business-like plans for improve U ments which necessitated bigger capita ' than they could swing. I might try ou U U their schemes for them. regardless c u expense, so they could find out whethe :. it would pay them to borrow and star 'l in for themselves But certainl 'o wouldn't attempt to teach them thei z. own busness--or their grandmother ' how to suck eggs!
 :, THE FARMER.