Norwich bulletin., 1922-10-06
THE CHIEF PRODUCT OF THE FARM
(written Specially for The Bulletin,

K 9Written Specially for The BulIetin) i friend whe appreciates my interest in everything rural sends me the follow ing clipping. which is credited to a pub lieation< <eaiied The Lamp. As an in- troduction, The Lamp says s:,-'aThis is not much of story. as stories go, but it has at least the merit of being true" On the contrary. it strikes me as very much of a story. very we'll related and with a simply bee-yu-ti-ful moral which doesn't need to be told, since it tells it. self You read it please and see if you Edont agree.
 ' Here 1t is:-
 Ten years ago New England farmer took two brothers from an orphan asy- lun. They were under-nourished un- smiling. listless When they had learned the difference between an axe and an axle the farmer took them one day to a field that was part of the farms iiabili- ties. Nothing had ever been produced there but the trees whose blackened stumps remained, and the boulders that showed their stubborn heads above the weeds and underbrush. Prom time to time' said the farmer. T want you to bring the oxen up here with logging chains and do some clear ing. When you are older. I'll show you how to use dynamite and fertilizer 'sThe other day the two boys, now stai- wart men, again clumbed the hill with the farmer. The field that had worn out oxen, cfowbars and stone sleds showed an even expanse of waving grain. Stone walls surrounding it testified to hercu- lean labors.
 Ten years work for the two of us,' said one of the men, and all we've got Is a three-acre field,
 "'Are you sure that is all? asked the farmer.
 "The older brother looked at the sturdy
 shoulders of the young man beside him He saw as for the first time the powerful muscles waiting under their coat of tan to respond to a call. then glanced down at hls own splendid figure.
 No. I guess I've got to admit that we raised 8 couple of men out of that l3feld, too he said.''
 That's the story. | It is enc which no lover of the eountry
 and the open farm-lanes can fail to ap- preciate and understand Would God il might be read and told and benused i upon in city siuns and city tenements and city homes For 1t tells in a strik.
 ing way just what are the chief prod.
 ucts of the farms. The products most needed. The products most essential ts
 civilization and civilizations perma-
 hence. The products, too, which are un.
 fortunately growing rarer.
 I mean men.
 Ton have locked upoa-<he chief farm
 products as being comprised in some suef
 list as hay. corn, potatoes, oats, wheat
 cabbages, onions, apples and the like Now haven't you? That's where you've been wrong. These are means to al
 end; expedients for which, with the com ing of fuller knowledge, we may some
 time be able to substitute simpler ant
 better supplies.
 But there's one product which is no an expedient, and which nothing car
 ever be substituted for And that is men When you were a boy in district schoo
 I'm sure you had to speak piece nov
 and then. If you didn't yourself rec
 off Sir William Jones' famous ode, yol
 certainly heard some other lad do it
 Perhaps you can recall some of it's sonor
 ous lines, even yet. Such as What constitutes a state?
 Not high raised battlement or IaboreS s mound,
 Thick wall or moated gate; f Not cities proud with spires and turret, crowned
 No;v-men. high-uinded men Men who their duties know, But know their rights and, knowing, dar maintain,
 These constitute state" New, should be the very last man 7 on earth to say that real men can onl, ! be raised on the farms of the nation
 That would be drawing the lines mucl