Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, July 14, 1922, Page 10

(Written Specially for The . Bulletin) We old farmers are apt to smile rath- er superciliousiy at what we call “book farmin’' ". We haven't, as a rule, mu«.h[ confidencs in what its followers call “sci- sntific farming” Our contention is that the way to learn how to handle dirt is io handle it, and the way to learn farm- ng is by farming till we've. found out. While I can't quite agres with that doctrine in all that it implies as well as all it says, I own up to a good deal of sympathy with its defenders. /They’ve us- sally been throu; mill. / They speak sut of a fund of true learning based on long years of the most fundamental ex- pérfmenting and testing. They've plow- *d and harrowed ] cultivated and hoed thelr dirt till they n\.n'h: to know a good deal about what it will do and what it wen't do.. They've summered and winter- ed 4n all soris and conditions of weather and climate till théy ought to know the rigns of weather. They usually think they do know | these thi rather better than a specta- | cled stranger with a test tube and a roll of Htmus paper; | r an anemometer on his | likely to look with | ¢ own soll or their ame time they're t fixed, not to say | in thelr belief in their | d in the certalnly of | thefr own pet “signs.” And every once in a while, I stumble up against an occurrence which | shows that they aren't infallible, that they're liable to make big mistakes; in- déed, that they're just about as apt to be r readings of the past or| ications of the future as! fic ge For instance: Ever since I was “knee- grasshopper” I've heard from! When bor I had to -put | from outgrowing garden crops they | n"'to l\e'n t and smothering my comtorted me with the repetition of that | statement. and rich, “Your land must ‘be good | or quack wouldn't grown on it,” | they said. From hearing it so many times 1 came to accept It as truism. | You know how it is when a thing is din- | ned into you, da after year, not on! Harry, but by all th the country Well, it happens that right in the ge- ographical middle of my gardens was a | gravel bed. Some ancient stream had de- | Dosited 1t there untold ages ago, and the | after, day and year | by 'Tom, Dick -and | other habitants of | H ‘side. Head 0f Mexican Rebels i Francisco Leon de La Barra, who according to a manifesto issued by | rebel Mexican leaders, has been nameéd as provisional pregident. HOW EXPERIENCE UPSETS TEACHINGS IN FARM]NG and the cultivator teeth dragged them up | used, occasionally to wonder why the epplied. ‘Finally he shook his white ead ; started: but checked himself, and finally blurted out: 1 know anything about quack- ZPass—or | ‘“flairt either. M home Without another word. . ’ In his old lle that good man %ell'ned a lesson, and is not foo stubborn 0 admit it My: quack-bed taught him ‘that one of the things he felt knew he really didn't couldn’t know, took hold of him, just as it had of me, with & sudden sense that, in this business of curs, there is practically nothing of which we can say we are absolutely cer- tain. X The l\rubasm‘u with thelr test tubes and their litmus paper may be often wrong. 'np several cxumpl ne dug :.roum&(n the grv.val in um-z:)!zr;I of any trace of mire ght_have fttous- twice to'say momething, “Well, Tll neyer say again that “Then he walked stralght | esgs. sure he know at-all; since ‘it wasn't so. It subsequent slow erosion from the neigh- boring hills had not brought down silt and soil enough to bury it. It was just about leveled with the surrounding soil. But when your plow struck into it, in going across the field, you recognized it at once. It was just an area of small, water rounded pebbles, mone of them bigger than a big fist and running down to the size of a pea. There wasn’t enough | dirt mixed with the pebbles to permit the growing of any garden crop. Yet, as it lay right in the center of several acres of really admirable garden soil it was un- handy to plow around it. After some time I discovered that fleld beans would gow on it and make perhaps half a crop. So I used to plow it with the rest and then mark it. at.the same. time as I marked for the corn and potatoes which were to be planted around it. When we came to the actual planting, we chang- ed our seed to beans as soon as we struck this gravel area, planted beans till we reached the other edge and then resumed our corn or potatoes. Well, when cultivating time came we invariably met some quack grass strug- gling to get a foot hold among these beans. It roots found scant welcome and niggardly provisions in the stony sofl, easily,. We used to congratulate our- selves that it was so simple to kill the stuff on that part of the patch. And I quack, which was proverbially averse to poor soll, should try to grow on that wat- er washed gravel. Two years ago this summer, the area had beans on it, as it had for the preced- ing twenty years. The next spring I was unable to plow it or get it plowed. Per- force, I was compelled to let it, with all but a scant half acre of the rest of the gardens, lie fallow and grow up to weeds. "or weeks I didn’t even 'stroll in that ai- ection. The spectacle of sorry abandon- men was a sore trial to my thrifty New grass as T'ever saw. It was fairly thick set and,Jf one could have run a plame over the top, I firmly believe it would have cut the tips of three out of every ! four stalks. Quack grass, spear of it, too! and every blithering Wien, the haymakers came to do my r me, I showed them this patch, mowed it. /There can't be a haif acre of it,.all told, yet they drew. from it 4 big two-horse load of dry hay. It was put in the horse barn with timothy below it and timothy above. When [ came to feed it, in the winter, I couldn’t see but thatsthe horses ate it as hungrjly, cleaned up their mangers as thoroughly and did quite as well as on the timothy. As for me, at first'T simply gloated. 1 recalled § n's faméus riddle .which the thirty wedding guests had to give up, i and felt that I, too, had secursd meat from the eater or, at least, good horse feed from a pestiferous weed. Then another side of the matter show- ed up in my mind. .Hers was the poor- est bit of soil in a hundred acres. And was the ‘dictum of the accumulated-farm wisdom of a hundred years that quack would not grow on poor soil. ‘And here was a simply bouncing crop of pure guack right on that exceptionally poor soil. Do you wonder that the strain on my orthodoxy was severe? That I began to feel a secret doubt as to the all-wisdom of even the “practical farmers” who sur- round me? i This summer another even ranker growth of quack overspreads that gravel- bed. It promised even a bigger yield of hay. I haven't seen anywhere In a radius of ten miles a carefully seeded meadow. which shows any evener or thicker or taller growth. It's pgoing to take a sound rigging and a husky team to draw it to the barn In one load when it is cut. T'd really like to know the how and because of it; the why and, the where- fore. But the most interesting experi- ences of the season consists in takis one after another of the wise old flrmexg who neighbor me and who have spent years in teaching me that “quack-grass won't grow on poor soil” up to that gravel-bed and showing them the noble Felix [Aaz, now in New York, has arranged . for a conference of the alleged Mexican revolutionary fac- tions- with the idea of naming a presidenit and Cabinet for the pro- vislonal ‘government he plans to establish. De La Barra is one of the best known Mexican statesmen, and he held the post of provisional president - a- short while Dbefore Obregon came into power, burden of guack which is rippling in the breezes all over it. They've"known that bit of land all their lives. They know quack-grass when they see it, too. Their comments are varied and usually characteristic. The most common one is, in effect, “I wouldn’t haye beliéved -t if I hadn’t seen it with my éwn eyes” This, even though I bave a fair reputatlon for truth and veracity. ‘The most satisfying has been that of ome of my oldest neighbors. He walked around it and across it; he pulled Instant Relief hafing ‘Rashes, Iiching, Scalding, Sun ‘flons ss of Infants, Children and Adults, Prescribed by Physicians and Trained Narses for 25 years as a peerless“skinhealth” powder. Verily,—and so'may we “practical farm- ers,” with our hoes and our experiénce. It l!m’t good policy to throw stone at them on for we, too, live in glass houses. The very “laws of nature” of which we your experience are just about as likely to be mistaken as they and their theories. Thus I get two blessings out of the quack which for many fought with bitter enmity. First, it glves me a useful addition to my hay-mow; second it suggests a highly moral les- son not only for you but for me, too. I maintain that Samson and his honey- filled lion’s carcass have nothing on it. “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” 1,000 HENS AT STORRS In the thirty-sixth week of the egg laying contest at Storrs the 1,000 hens seemed to take a new lease of life by producing 131 eggs more than Jast wweek, 298 eggs more than last year and 81 eggs more than the seven year average. The total weekly production was 3,882 or a yield of about arily at this season of the year we ex- pect that there will be a gradual de- crease in egg production but for the last two weeks the hens in the contest have made a steady gain. The honors for the week Leghorns and the Rocks with the majori- ty of the honors going Beck Egg Farm’s White Leghorns from account of their occasional' blunders years 1 have THE FARMER. LAY MORE IN 36TH WEEK ezgs 56 per cent. Ordin- The four leading pens in each of fllo principal breeds are as follows: i Harry G. Culver (Barred) West- hampton Beach, L. L ........ W. H, B. Kent (Baned), Cazeno- via; N. Y. Purdue University ‘(Barredy, Fayette, Ind. Ontario Agricultu: ted) Guelph, Ont. Frank P. Matteson, Davisville, R. Woodbridge Orchards, Woo Conn. Walter Bradbury, Tottington, Enx- land Clemens J. Diemafld New Brlt.tm Modesty in one’s estimate of one’s own | CONN. ... oorsnorsrme g rindoma s as dosirable @ virtue amons e e 'armers as among sclentists. lere are very, very few things even on this tiny “‘,zusom‘“ds Sonth gty globe we call the carth which we really | , 3955 o -on oryi-tonin® ey 1 know. Even tho things we feel the sur-| TOBn - "Sfii{i&fi“”""‘éfl’i‘fiem - est of have In them an element of dogbt. | F- L = S% g SERDE e it Cand il 0 “RIbIy g rtter an 0 Cowpin, Longmeadow, Mass.” 1806 only observed sequences which offer us a Whito Tepupems. . &) working probability. that they wijl con- | Hollywood ° Farm, Hollywood, tinue to follow in the future thé same Wash. .... 1448 order as In the past. 3. Frank Dubols, Peacham, Vt. . 1428 By all means, take the assertlons of | Gosnen Pouitry Club, Goshen, the professors with salt; with as big a 3 e g TATS flavoring of salt as you please. At the - same time, don’t forget that you and . 1355 Isles Wednesday afternoon by Miss Ag- nes Kilroy at street. enjoyed and refreshments served. Tatum is visiting with her aunt, Mrs. Henry Percy of McKinley avenue, and is- pleased with her reception with her little friends carry home a fine impression of Amer- ican hospitality. party were the Misses Jeanette Sack of ‘Worcester, Crescent Beach; Anna Kearney, Elinor and Clara Tomanio, Bertha Mar- kus, Arline and Ruth Harris, na Reid. ‘Woodift Lake, N. 3J., both tled “for ond_place witha mmou“xn pen of White Leghorns B. Ferris from Grand Raj lfl- in third place with Fourm place goes to a pen of ed by the Ontario. 3 cnflege at’ Guelph for a woflm gt yield of. b: Plymouth Bocks. 1518 White Wyandottes. ~30x3Y; Cord 32x4 Cord 33x4 Cord 34x4 Cord 32x41/2 Cord ‘34x41/z Cord 35x5 - Cord Given Surprise Party. 4 pleasant surprise party was ten- Zered Miss Pearl Tatum of the Bermuda her home on School Games, music, and songs were Mlss | in this country and will Those attending the Mass. Kathleen Carey of and Madeiyn Agnes and Winifred Kilroy, and Ver- go to the to the White Howard’s Bu ; | i ot rm cheerfully refunded. g O DAYS ONLY 30x3 -Fabric ........... 30x31/2Falmc........... The Williams Tire & Supply Company S A Regular Price $ 9.50 $1050 . $12.50 $26.90 $27.60 $29.70 $32.20 $34.70 Sale Price $ 9.00 $10.00 $12.00 $22.00 $23.00 $25.00 $28.00 $32.00 $38.50 Telephone 1600 Norwich, Conn. Leghorns. A pen of White Leghorns| Keeps Skin Soft, Clear and Pliable : > England cyes. But one day in late June | owned by Eigenrauch and DeWinter.| To prove this to. : o Commis = 1 h 3 D 1 your complete satis-| . v, 8. B. 5 I had to dodder up that way. And| from Red Bank, N. J, and a pen of the | faction, get a package at !;’our s SR el o there I came on the surprise of my life | game breed owned by Rapp’s Leghorn | toil = 7 The U. 8. S. Caesar which recentl: b oilet goods counter. The drections ]hrgtdegd of the st‘;mtod ;‘;m;th gt :hen- Ea,rm"n;zm Atlantic Highlands, N. I, |are simple and’it costs so little that| completed.‘a 12,000 mile trip: f=om “the purse and ragweed an ma-~ | both \tied for first with a score of 5 |any girl or woman can affefd it.— It is in 'B’a'.se ':s.'n Franclsco ranth and chickweed, etc., which I had |\sggs each.” Francis F. Lincoln's White | guaranteed’ to satisfy you in every iy 22 Xi§ expected, that whole ex-bean patch was | Leghorns from Mt. Carmel, Conn., and {way or the purchase price will be] e Samoan Islands and Honoluly, { covered with as even a “seeding” of tall ; mt of commission July 7. Captain Fred Went | o ing ship at Frisco and will be as- ! “Sorry I gave you the wrong number,” said the polite teiephone operator. “Don't mentfon it,” answered the man, who had made up his mind not to joee his temper. “T'm sure the number you gave me was much better than the one I asked for. Only it just happened I wasn't able to use it.”"—Washington Star. hlben :nd other re.erve officers were (yald off and some of them came east and will seek' other employment. Thn érew, Including James Pedace of Nor- wich have been transferred to the re- signed to other vessels. OUR SEMI-ANNUAL CLEARANCE SALE Women’s and Misses’ Coats and Wraps In Tweed, Tricotine, Velour, Boli- via, Polo, and Camel’s Hair. COATS, Marked Down to $ 8.95 . COATS, Marked Down to $10.95 ' COATS, Marked Down to $14.95 ‘' COATS, Marked Down to $18.95 ' COATS, Marked Down to $22.95 WRAPS, Marked Down to $ 6.95 - WRAPS, Marked Down to $ 8.95 | WRAPS, Marked Down to $10.95 . WRAPS, Marked Down to $12:95 . WRAPS, Marked Down to $14.95 1 s hsnsr s [H H“H—KH'TTX‘ BEGINS ONE WEEK AS USUAL, WE PLACE AT YOUR DIS- POSAL OUR ENTIRE STOCK OF UP-TO- - DATE MERCHANDISE, AND OFFER EVERY GARMENT FOR QUICK ANCE, AT GREATLY REDUCED YOU KNOW OUR VALUES —IT’S UP TO YOU TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS MONEY-SAVING OPPORTUNITY Dresses of Canton Crepe, Cl‘epe-de-Chmtq Taffeta, Georgette, Voile, Ginghany; Linen, Serge and Tricotine. : DRESSES, Marked Down to $ 1.45 Serge. Marked Down to $ 3.95 ODAY ' AND WILL CONTINUE FOR tine, Poiret Twill, Tweed and SUITS, Marked Down to $ 7.95 DRESSES, Marked Down to $ 1.95 SUITS, Marked Down to $10.95 | SKIRTS, Marked Down to. Marked Down to'$ 2.45 SUITS, Marked Down to $14.95 sun's. Marked Down to $16.95 OUR SEMI-ANNUAL CLEAR- PRICES. Serge. : SKIRTS, Marked Down to. . 95¢ SKIRTS, Marked Down to. .. SKIRTS Marked Down to. SIGRTS Marked Down to.... $4.95 SKIR[S,erkedDownto.... $6.95 Sweaters