Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, November 21, 1914, Page 12

Written Specially for The Bulletin. it's one of the most delightfus things in the world to hear how farm- ers are prospering and getting rich— somewhere else! I've been reading government re- ports and western farm papers for lo, these many years. I've learned from the latter that most western farme & now use automobiles to get out their manure with, and traction engines to do their plowing with, and gasoline engines to husk or thresh their crops with, and electric lights in their ki ens and barns, to say nothing abont always hot water {n their bathrooms. The government reports don't gener- ally blush quite so rosy, but the size and value of the farm crops they re- port is usually something mouth-fili- ing and heart-warming. P've just been reading a summary Nov. stimate from the dc- ulture of 1914’s crops. According tu is, the present years vield of Lull'n is about 260,00¢,000 bush- ¢ls bigger than last year’s; the wheat yield .Ahflul 128,000,000 bushels bigger, s a 10 Ligger; the 1st yield 1,300, igeer; the rve X \s bigger; the buckwheat yield ,200,000 bushels bigger; the po- tato crop about 75,000,000 bushels big- ger; the hay crop about 4,500,000 tons DLigirer; the tobacco crop about 29,000, ounds bigger; the apple crop 113,000,000 barrels bigger. d'ye think of those for “fig- . eh? the; dcn't hagm to tell all.the of ;gr)uullurll wealth which and blazes through the tables. Not only are yields enormous, b1t prices are high. The average farm e of wheat is reported at 96 cents against 77 cents at this time last year. The average farm price of oats is 32 cents against 38 last year. The total value of the corn crop is put at $1.- 883, 24, which is the biggest total ever predicated of that crop. Incidentally, and without any refer- ence to anything or anybody else on earth, note that the “farm is eet at 96 cents, ‘of oats at 42 cents; t of corn at 69 cents. Compare those with the prices you have to pay per bushel for any one of these cereals, if you want some to feed your horses or your chickens! Now yowll observe that most of these crops which have yielded so richly and are priced so high are not crops whigh New England does mrich with., We raise potatoes and apples, rather than corn and wheat. And ‘n regard to potatoes and apples, even the ;rosperity-blushing tables of the opti- ¢ department have to whisper 4 mm rent tale. In both cases the yield has been exceptional. True, but the rm price” of potatoes is cents a bushel against 69 lasi arm price’ 'of apples is set at ago. And let me say right here that even these low p s are higher than they run in my immediate neighborhood. At least three of my neighbors are hauling their potatoes nine to twelve miles over a mountain road and deliv- g them at city stores for 50 cents a 1. They can haul but 40 bushels at a load, and it takes a $4-a-day team and man all day to deliver one load. This brings the “farm price™ in their case to 40 cents a bushel. An- other neighbor is hauling to the same city and delivering, two or three bush- a place, into consumers’ cellars, at 60 cents a bushel. That is the very highest I know that any farmer near me is getting. Even he, as you ses, isn’t getting any more than 50 cents as “farm price. And apples: One orchardist near me sent a shipment to Boston not long ago. They were strictly Al fruit, and they netted him a return of just eight cents a barrel when the cost of ba-- rels and freight and dravage and com- mission charges, etc, had been taken out. Another sent a carload to New York city recently, and got $1.25 a barrel for them, out of which he had to take 38 cents for the barrel itself, about 20 cents for freight, and several other ller charges, making his net re- ts, to pay for the apples and the work of picking and packing and hauling, not quite the 56 cents a barrel iich the department reports as the erage “farm price” per bushel. And his barrels held a good two bushels and three pecks each. A friend in a neighboring city writes me that he has just pald “$1.60 a bushel for his fall pipnins T nicked two barrels of daisy pippins off my tree a month ago which I'd have been glad to sell him at $1. THE BOOMING CROPS OF THE YEAR-1914 cents a bushel against 85 a vear| 50 a barrel. Evcn. < mwe-, ml:htofl.en find, al'thu year, that would have.been three times as mueh ‘as I-can get for them at the farm. In fact, 1 can’t sell them at all to anybody except the cider mill, which offers me 25 cents a hundred weight for. them—but I don’t have to furnish any barrels! Another friend in another city writes that she is having to pay 30 cents & peck for cooking apples, That's at the rate of $1.20. a bushel, or about $3.30 & barrel. Some difference between “farm price” and eater’s- price, eh? As 1 said at the outset, it’s mighty pleasant to know that farmers some- where are, getting the persimmons without having to knock them off the trees. On the other hand it seems just a bit queer that this year, like almost all the other past yee_rs 1 can recall, it is the farmers somewlere else—not you and I and our neighbors—who are feeding so faily and getting so rich. Doesn’t it seem a little too bad that all the automobiles and silver-plated bath room fixtures should go out to Kansas and lowa farmers, when there are so many of us Yanks who would enjoy them, too? When we were boys we were all told about the pot of gold that lay at the cottom of the rainbow—if only we could cnce ger to where that bow touched the ground. Perhaps some of you tried after it, as the boy I once was dild. But we never could catch up with that rainbow. As we advanc- ed, it receded, After wet and weary struggling through the soaked grass it was always just as far away from us as when we started, Do you really suppose there's any basis for the horrible suspicion which sometimes crosses my skeptical mina that the rainbow of agriculturay pros- perity is as elusive as the prismatic arch of clearing summer skies? There's one thing palpably self-evident | jabout this year’s prosperity figures— farmers. And they serve to reinforce| the arguments I've repeatedly made for a greater diversification of our New England farming. If some of us ha® had more corn and more wheat this year and fewer apples and potatoes | we should have been better off. Of course, we can’'t raise much corn or wheat in Connecticut. But there are a good many farms—a good many more than some farmers think— which will grow corn and wheat which will grow bunkpm. corn and fine wheat, Recall those figures I quoted a month ago—bow the station bad been for three years experimenting with wheat and growing from 23 to 35 bushels per acre; how ex-Governor Woodruff had raised 40 bushels an acre on eight acres? And the average acre yield for the whole country, even this booming year, is reported by the department to be only 16.7 bushels! And did you read about 11 years old Mason H, Parker's half-acre of corn, in “The Wide Awake Circle” the other day? He harrowed the half- acre five times with a yoke of three- vyear old steers; put two bags of fer- tilizer on it (manure had previously been plowed under); planted it three feet apart one way and 14 inches the other; cultivated it “six or seven times,” holding the cultivator while his little sister rode the horse; cut the corn mormings and evenings be- fore and after school; esnt ten ears to Hartford fair and got first prize of seven dollars; “husked it all alone and got just 80 bushels.” 1t begins to look as if a whole lot of us gray-haired old fellows would do better to retire and let the twelve-year- olds do our work! They seem to “git thar” when we don’t. But there-may be hope, even yet, for us moss-baeks. In The Bulletin’s re- cent report of “Corn night” at the Norwich grange there were some things which seem. to indicate that a new spirit is ‘beginning to manifest itself. To ‘begin with, “there were 28 entries, more than three times as many as in the competition a year ago.” It seems there were cnly eight entries in 1913. M. er, there was a marked im- provement noted in the quality of corn over that displayed a year ago. Three’ times as many farmers inter- ested in corn, and those Interested proving that they had done better work with i1t. Such thingy are worth re- cording, not, perhaps, as eminent re- sults but as mighty satisfactory indi- cations of a changing spirit. When eggs are high a big basket of eggs is a very good thing.. BEven then, though, the wisdom of our ancestors Jake do not take Substitutes Get theWell- Known Round Package equi Skim water. mmwwmwflm Wa@ TopeiReallhs Milk plant in the world We do not make"milk products”— But the HORLICK’S MALTED MILK Made from pure, full-cream milk and the extract of select malted grain, reduced to powder form, soluble in DW™ASK FOR “HORLICK'S” or Imitations HORLICK'S MALTED MILK Made In the largest, best pped and sanitary Malted Milk, Condensed Milk, etc. inal-Genuine The Food-drink for All Ages. Used all over the Globe they mostly apply to wheat and corn | has decided that it isn't wise to have all our egEs in one basket. The farmer who oa.n raise some good corn ‘and wfeat and -oats as well as The opening of the Crown theater, in State street, which made the fourth moving picture houses in New London, operated every day and night, Sunday excepted, had the effect of diminishing the sidewalk traffic in Bank street as far down as the Empire theater and including- the Orpheum theater, near- by. Walter Murphy, manager of the Lyceum, which is now devoted in the main to movies and vaudeville, as- sumed the management of the new Crown also, which is a purely movie house. This combination proved too strong for the down-towners, and now the Orpheum is closed, the lesses of that theater taking over the Empire, and In consequence there is but one picture house in Bank street. The old Lawrence hall is leased by the man- agement of the two other Bank street places to keep out opposition, but the coming of the Crown spoiled that lit- tle game In so far as went opposi- tion. The movie situation in New London just at the present time is something like this: Manager Davis, he who was among the first to get into the mov- ing picture business in New London and was lessee of the present Empire, is now back in his old place, succeed- ing the owners and managers of that playhouse. It will be recalled that when Manager Davis’ lease expired he refused to leave the Empire in order that the owners could engage in the picture business. The owners and subsequent managers, the Moran brothers, were kept out of possession of their property for about a year, or untll the Orpheum theater was built, BELGIUM: THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER Instructive Statement Relative to That Country by William J. Sho- walter. . (Special to 7'he Bulletin.) Washington, D. C., Nov. 20.—Per- haps no other organization in the T'nited States is keeping in such close . touch with the geography of the Euro- r ' the National Geographic society, of Washington. While it is furnishing geographical data daily to the press, it is itself receiving a weadth of geographic material with reference their customs, their industries, and thelr geographic history. In a com- munication on Belgium: The Ihnocent Bystander, William Joseph Showalter tells the more than 300,000 members of the society: “The Belgium of today has an area less than one-fourth as great as Mis- sissippi, yet at the outbreak of the present war Its population was four times as large as that of Mississippl. Twenty-two and a half countries like Belgium could be tucked away In a state like Texas, and their aggregate population would be more than that of the United States and Germany to- gether.” According to this writer, Julius Cae- sar himself bears early witness to the braverv of the Belgians, who, he says, were braver than the Aquitani or the Celts, due to the fact that they were nearer the Germans, with whom they were constantly at war. Within Belgium'’s 11,375 square miles of territory, smaller than Massachu- setts and Connecticut, with a popula- tion of 7,579,000 there lived, at the out- break of the war, nearly three million French-speaking Walloons who cannot talk with a like number of their com- patriot Flemish speaking Flemings, In their habits of mind and methods of gaining a livelihood they differ as widely as the English and the French. but the bond of religion has bound them together for generations, with never a fratricldal war in their mod- ern history. The Belgian constitution, framed in 1830 by a convention of Belgians, guarantees freedom of conscience, of education, and of press, and the right of peaceful assemblage. The kingship is _filled by succession. There is a cabinet, a senate and a house of rep- rescntatives. A senator’s pay, remark- able as it may seem. is a free pass on the rallroads without a dollar of actual salary A representative gets a free pass and $800 a year. The suffrage laws are interesting. A Belgian gets one vote when he reaches the age of 2 If, at the age of 35 he pays one dollar in taxes, and is married or a widower with legiti- mate children, he gets a second vote. If he pays a certain amount of taxes or holds a university diploma he is entitled to two additional votes—ex- cept that in no case may a man cast more than three votes. In’ selecting representatives, parties and not men are voted for, and each party gets a representation in proportion to its voting strength. The Belgians are fine farmers. They grew, last year, 37 bushels of wheat to the acre where we grew 15; 50 bushels of barley to our 24; 312 bush- els of potatoes to our 90. Belgium has been a land of low wages and cheap living. Many of the people who fashion our exquisite Bel- glan laces get only $5 a week, and the average wage earner’'s income is only about $165 a vear. But with all that, the Belgian housewife, an artist In making a little, go a long way, has | fed her family well and clothed them comfortably. There were no milkmen in Belgium, for the women drove the dog carts that constituted the nation’s milk wag- ons. Every milk can had to shine, ~very dog had to have harness to fit him a bowl for his drinking water, and arpet .or bag to lle down on when tired. No dog in Belgium, except those of the rich, escaped bearing his share of the family burdens. The people of Belgium were ' the world’s_greatest beer drinkers before the outbreak of the present war, with 48.8 gallons per capita per year, as compared with the German consump- don of 26.3 gallons. On the other hand the Belgian used only one gallon of wine as compared with the French- man’s 34 gallons. Rallway fares were very low. A dauble~dl.“y Journey of 20 miles cost 37 1-2 cents & week; of 44 miles, 50 cents a week. Bvery person entering a railroad station had to for that privilege and the revenue therefor amounted to $50,000 a year. Blegium's foreign business was large. Those wonderful little enxlnu that aid such good work at Panama were Lere Liege-made, and an example of Belgium’s exports. The country’s for- eign_trade was greater than that of all South America together, lf the Tnited States impcrted as much per capita as Belgim, i imports would toias twelve billion dolhn a year we, eported as ‘muxch per capita onr export business would amount to ten billion Numbcofl’hybousubbekeduudfly()ne—l@allnh- Connecticut Leader of Democracy to Woods. for a term of ten years, Ol Orpheum and Empire management en- to the countries at war, their peopless® pay one cent, h.t‘:::thammawuudmwmw balance, where a one to pmduatlou_d- uknly.t&‘mdu ditch. THE FARMER. As a medicinal antiseptic for doudn- in treating catarrh, inflammation in their private correspo: ‘women, which proves its superiority. house| Women who have been ive of the Mr. Davis leasing’ the new druggists. 650c, large which expired. After a while The ton. "Tollet Cn. tered into some sort of an agreement and took lease of the Lawrence hall and kept it closed - from opposition. These leases are still in existence, and it is not believed that they can be se- cured for a little piece of money, .in- dicating that the Empire is to pay for itself and earn enough to pay the rental of the Lawrence and Orpheum, and also pay Manager Davis a sub- stantial profit. Naturally, this condition is for the benefit of the manager of the Lyceum and the Crown, for it closes two houses of pombln opposition, instedd of one, as formerly, which means an increase of nage for one or both of the uptown theaters It is the com- mon belief that the business of the Empire will not increase by the change in management, as practically the same patrons patronize both the Orpheum and Empire, with each change of pictures, 1. e, the same patrons spent two or three nights at the Orpeum and the same at the Em- pire, and now all the pictures, with two changes weekly, can be covered in three nights at the Empire. There- fore the total receipts at the box office will not be materially increased under the new management, upon the pre- sumption that the same people are the patrons of the two theaters. Under the new plan they will have better op- portunity to visit one of the uptown theaters and with no increase in the usual weekly outlay for amusement pm)oae& After all, it may be only a f the survival of the fittest, un- less there has been a deal under the table. London quite a busy place about this time, There is more truth than poetry in ng to the ls when ti their choice gets the short end on election day, so said that erstwhile leader of Connecticut democracy, Charles W. Comstock, who arrived in New London Thursday evening on his return from a hunting trip in the Maine woods. He sald that he epent about seven hours in electioneering on election day, that he did not uxa the way things were breaking, immediately took a train fur khe woods and has been there ever since. He has been far away from political and away from his political !dends. activity, away from his party friends the enemy. He said his hunting party had a fine time and that he personally was more successful in hunting wild game than in his recent plays in the game f pelitics. In his opinion the democrats have been temporarily sub- dued, but they are now recuperating after the one-sided battle of the bal- lots and will come out in force two years hence in formidable force on the firing lne, and, so he says, they will break through the republican center, turn both the right and left fianks and put the ememy to rout. Mr. Comstock had his favorite rifle with him when he gpoke, and his tone indi- cated sincerity Come to think it over, Mr. Comstock is not the only democrat who h en to the woods, and as they do not seem to return there is just a very little fear that they may have been lost in the political jungle and will never come back- As to Mr. Com- stock’s political prediction, other democrats, have predicted su cess for the party many times before, but their prognostications have rarely become true. .He may be the Horace Johnson of the party, but even Horace has been known to have made unrelia- ble predictions. Just so long as the republicans of Connecticut vote the party ticket, just so long will the democrats remain the minority party. It was r-untly said that the Brown Cotton Gin company, manufacturers of cotton gins and printing presses, was on short time and with reduced help, which was true. But not so now as nearly all the help that was laid off is being called back and that full time is to prevail, especially in the print- ing press line. As about 90 per cent. of the cotton gins manufactured were sent to Russia, that branch will prob- ably be not revived to any great ex- tent until there is a new market for the product. It was also stated that the Palmer quilt mill was at a standstill, and that the employes were all idle. This, too, was true, just before election. But now the big plant is on full time and with full working force. Reference was also - made to slack times at the Whiton plant, with Sen- ator-elect Whiton, president of the company, seated on the platform. Much of the product of this hive of industry is for the foreign trade, and naturally the war had some effect on the exportations. But that plant is now on full time and the employes are not finding any fault with the hours of labor or with the pay received. Mention, however, was omitted of the New London Ship and Engine com- pany, that is now operated twenty- four hours a day every day in the week, including Sundays. This con- cern has orders sufficlent in hand to run the plant to capacity for nearly two years. Work has already com- menced on the erection of another large factory building, which will al- most double the capacity of the big plant. themselves to win, even if every moth- er's son of them were out of the woods, and no man in the state knows better than Mr. Comstock, despite his prediction of democratic success Connecticut two years hence. It is well that the name of the fellow who orig- inated that old saying: “Blow your horn, if you don’t sell a fis] is_not known. It would be an injustice to the old-time chap to credit the saying to any individual. now MUving, even if there is suggestion of its applicability. High power electric motors are used in the French army to extract the steel bullets from the wounded. SCROFULA AND ALL | HUMORS GIVE WAY There are many things learned ‘rom experience and observation that the older generation should im- ~ress upca the younger. Amon, tem is the faet that serofula an ‘her humors are most successfully -eated with Hood’s Sarsaparilla. his great medicine is a peculiar smbination of remarkably efieeuve lood-purifying and health-giving ots, barks and herbs, and has been *4 for forty years. Get it today. Hundreds of first-class mechanics are given employment at satisfactory ‘wages, and the oldest inhabitant can- not recall the time when so many skilled machinists were employed in New London concerns as at the: pres- ent time. With the industrial plants flouring, and the stats pler, the rail- road bridge and the Connecticut col- lege for women in course of construc- tion, all at the same time, makes New BHean Amy:= You and Bol must fake Jhankigiving dinner John has jusi made a good Lusiness o with us. deal, and Lought me a new dining rocom sef. want “io show it opf. J'm not Lashpul alout confessing this te an ofd friend Like youw, Amy. We women aff do Love paeity homes. JI¢ huslands, who ecan easily could give their wives Ly fuaning them foode in a pfuaniture stone, to Luy what they wanted, wouldn't the fuanitune fhy, though? Lovingly, 5 Lou, @. S.~John bought my new dining Koom purnituire from SHEA & BURKE, 3747 MAIN STREET the saylng that relates to peliticians ' taking to the wood party of There are not enough democrats of ~ CUNNINGHAM and SHAW Eccentric_Comedians KASHIMA The Unique Juggler MUTUAL MOVIES—OUR MUTUAL GIRL—KEYSTONES ONE NIGHT Wednesday, Nov. 25th SICE, Tandes, 16 A M. THE SENSATIONAL. DRAMA‘TIC SUCCE&S OF THE CENTURY ONE NIGHT ONLY, Friday, Nov. 27. The Original London Company tended “run” in Boston. THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION used HERE. MAIL ORDERS when accompanied by remittance. at 10 A. M. A VITAL AND VIVID DRAMA OF N.Y. LIFE and Production Owing to the war in Europe this Company organized and equipped for an unlimited engagement at SIR CHARLES WINDHAM'S NEW THEATRE, LONDON, ENGLAND, will play a limited number of one- day engagements previous to its ex« of eleborate scenery and accessories, the same that was to have been in London WILL BE USED will be filled in the order received PRICES 25¢, 35c, 50c, 75¢, $1, $1.50 SEATS ON SALE WEDNESDAY BY GEORGE BROADHURST & ABRAHAM SCHOMER |_Orders With Remittance Filled in the Order of Receipt | FUNEST FAR[E IN-THE WORLD 3—BLATZ—3 Amazing Sharpshooters THE ROCK OF HOPE Deep Emotional Play MONDAY Today AUDITORIU THE SHOW THAT IS MAKING NORWICH TALK WELCH AMERICAN TRIO—Excellent Singers EVERY ACT AND EVERY PICTURE A CORKER BLANCHE PARQUETTE AND HER SEVEN CALIFORNIA PEACHES COLONIAL THEATRE 3—ShOW>—3 Mat., 10c. Eve., 10c & 200 SAM BARBER Pianologue and Dancin, FORD STERLING e — THE ANIMATED WEEKLY 2 Reels—*“ON LONESOME MOUNTAIN”—2 Reels “His Change of Heart” Biog.” Admission One Dollar. Seats on Sale at Box Office for “IRELAND, A NATION,” Seven Reels Mammoth Drama of Ireland’s Struggle—Monday and Tuesday Only Lecture at Slater Hall Tuesday, November 24th, at 8 P. I. Hon. William H. Taft EX-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES “The Signs of the Time Special rates to Teachers and Students 75 cents. Trolley connections for Willimantic Central Village, Westerly and New London after the lecture. “Man in Black,” Selig and Others FIRST GRAND BALL Given by the Chelsea Boat Club at the Thanksgiving Night Mr. Joseph D. Devine, exponent of Modern Dancing, will give an ex-- State Armory, hibition of the One Step, Hes ation and the Macixe. DREW’S FULL ORCHESTRA. k: ok s th ickets Admitting Gentleman and Two L affond it, only knew how mue appiness ey | Tickets Admitting “E'nr. I\:l:due:75e. Tiokets for sale at George A. Davis, Utley & Jones, N. H. M, Lorou and Pitoher & Service. -~ - Boxes can be procured at George A. Davll. American House|pr c. R CHAMBERLAIN Props. FARREL & SANDERSON, Special Rates to Theatre Troupes, Traveling Men, Ete. Livery connection. Shetucket Strest Dental Surgecn- McGrory Building, ceseies sereccsssceses.. $200 D, Sevin & Bln.i Norwich, Conn. F. C. GEER, Piano Tuner |pR. F. w. HOLMS, Destint me%m“