Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-12-02
agricultural department.
THE FARMERS FRIENDS.


THE FARMERS FRIENDS.
It is so ordered in nature that no one thing
shall so increase as to prove an annihilator of
any other thing. In the region of the river
Nile, where the crocodile exists, and once was
venerated as an object of religious worship,
its increase was retarded by little animal
called the ichneumon. The eggs and young
of the crocodile are sought for and devoured
BY this ichneumon. Were this not the case,
the crocodile would so increase as to utterly
destroy that fertile country. Something, no
doubt, prevents the excessive increase of the
ichneumon. In this and every country, we
see the same grand provision of nature in full
operation. In England, gardner pays four
shillings for toad. These creatures are
placed in his garden for the purpose of des'
troying the worms, bugs and flies that prey
upon his vegetables. In this country, We
have no need to buy toads to eat up these
destroyers of the labors of our hands. Our
air is filled with little birds, and our ground
is full of moles. The former gobble up all
on the surface, and the latter devour those
that burrow in the ground.
Some one raises his hands in horror when
the mole is mentioned as friend Why,
says another, this night-prowler nibbled the
ends of vast quantities of my potatoes last
year; eat up my beans, and ruined many of
my finest vegetable beds, and caused the most
costly plants to wilt and die. We have no
disposition to call anybody's word in ques-
ton; but facts are facts. If any one would
dare assert that his neighbours horses had
broken into his pasture and eat up all his hogs
and COWS, it would be hard to believe his
story. There is not an intelligent jury in the
world that would give a verdict for damages
in such a case. If the loser had claimed
damages for loss of corn, or oats, or grass, or
anything that horses eat, the case would have
been different. 1t would have been reasona-
BILE; for horses eat corn and oats, but they
will die before they will eat meat. Horses
are not meat eaters. Now, the mole eats moth
ing but meat. 1t will die before it will eat
potato. 1t will eat its own kind-its own off,
spring-any kind of meat; but no vegetable
will it let 60 down its throat. Thousands of
moles have been dssected and in the stom-
achs of not one of these was a particle of
vegetable fibre found. The mole devours
earthworms in vast quantities; but his stom.
ach never Graves vegetables, of any kind.
Poor little fellow! 1t works hard in destroy
ing the worms that destroy the farmers fruit
trees and the garden vegetables, and then is
hunted and destroyed as vile rogue. The
mole is most voracous creature. 1t cannot
live six hours without bait Of worms or
bugs. Nature has so ordered that it is a real
pleasure for this little creature to do good.
We admit that the mole, in doing good, is
the innocent occasion of some evil. 1t opens
hole in the ground which the thieving rat
follows, and devours the vegetables which the
mole had rescued from the earth-worm. 1t
may be the innocent occasion of some other
evils; but give the little fellow justice. Do
not charge him with crimes which it cannot
commit.
But the farmer has many friends. The lit
tie birds all are his friends. They spend
their lives in doing him favors. Still they are
hunted and killed, as if they were only depre-
dators upon the results of the farmers toll.
How cruel, how wicked, how ungrateful, for
the farmer to put gun into the hands of his
giddy.hsaded son and permit him to 60 out
into the fields to kill the little creatures that
protect his crops from the ravages Of worms
and insects. The American people, Of all
others, seem to delight in destroying. The
habit of killing was contracted at an early Pc
riod in our history, and it has been perpetual
ted from father to son down to the present mo-
ment.