The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-27

In this age ot neWly aWaKeneo social consciousness and CIO unions, it might be advisable to scan the records of the past for sagaS of industrialistS who real ized that help was human, even as you and I. Wakely's Flow Shop, a ramshackle business that used power from Bullet Hill Brook, might furnish a case history quite amazing to one of the newly graduated advocates of better hu- man relations.
 During the winter months, Wakely's employees worked on the fires, melting staunch Salisbury iron and pouring plOwshareS and mouldbOard castings. When the heat of summer made foundry work tough, the help worked on hickory and ash, making blow handles, or fitted castings tOgeth- CT to make the best blows on earth.
 OldtimerS at the blow shop were never allowed to dodder around and seek aims from an unrespon- sive town official. They were pen stoned of and their income was regulated according to their serv- ices. Many an old blow hand spent his twilight years in ease, because nobody set up any rules to ham, per individual initiative or tried to tell industry how to create pool of pension funds.
 The water wheel at the plOw- shop has fallen into decay. The last old penSiOner has showed off for other shores. Youngsters seek ing labor in the metal crafts are now forced to work in the brass shops, but the Wakely Flow has never been bested for durability and efficient operation. It's funny about that plOwshOp. Folks from neadby towns came to Wakely's and bought lots of blow castings fer assembly in other shops. These people copied the Wakely Flow but they never quite made sOd-buSter to equal it. Wakely held the field, until blow making became a uniOnized, SyS- tematized, mass production indus try guided by the halfbaked off spring of old time manufacturers.
 Flows are an important part of agricultural economy but fertilizer is also necessary to raise bumper crops on thin soil. Today, chemists claim wonders for their various mixtures and they are sometimes pretty close to the target, too. But there was a time when we used sort of industrial by-prodduct hereaboutS that makes commer- cial fertilizer men blush every time we show the record. Ever hear of raising corn with horn shavings? (Of course not, but it's been done)
 When Yankee PedlarS sold but tons made in America" those buttons were of shell, pewter, or horn. The horn grew on cows. Folks ate the COWS and made but tons of the horns. The shavings from horn button mills made the best fertilizer ever put beneath a hill of field or sweet corn. Some of that corn went right back into the production of horned cattle. A critter raised on horn shaving fertized- grew faster than an animal nOurished on ordinary grain. It seemed that Nature sort of cOnspired tO make this evOlu- ton process success, aided by careful Tanks who knew just how much fertilizer to use to get the best results.
 Westerners used to marvel at the deep green and the amazing height of our corn patches. They poked around and tried to find out what we had used to produce such crops; they bought seed here just like a New York now buys cord beds, and got about the same results. College men came noSing around to see what the secret was everybody sat tight and said nothing. Southbury farmers kept their secret well, and won a place in the sky for heavy corn and more of it. That was long ago, back when people had time to think and when buttons were pop ular. We lost something when zip per fasteners and eyelets took the place of horn buttons. We lost an industry and agriculture lost the best corn fertilizer ever scattered. Gosh! Isn't there some benighted country where people still make horn buttons? With the present backward season, it will take some thing almost as potent as horn shaving fertilizer to make a corn crop this year)
 We have contracts for almost everything on earth. Milk con- tracts assure the farmer of a mar ket; crop reduction contracts as- sure the importers of markets. Fuel oil contacts claim to protect home e-owners from inflated prices for heat. Contracts are mighty important since we have learned not to trust anybody unless he has been Signed-up.
 There's nothing new about con- tracts. Years ago, Milford seed growers made an annual tour