Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-24
AGRICULTURAL THEORIES.
And how to Practice Them

To the Eltor of the HERALD;
| don't want to be hard on theories.
Theories are good when they are
practical. Book farmers frequently
advance theories that lead to good re-.
suits. / don't want to be hard on
book farming. There was once one
of these theoretical book farmers, who
hired a man to hoe twelve rows of
corn on the side next the read, and
left the remainder Of the field to take
care of itself BY persistng in this
he became the secretary OF State
Agricultural Society, and now has
time to form theories for whole
State, which arc very useful-to keep
up his reputation as theorist.
| have been reading of little book
farming thattook place in New \ ork,a
short time since, at the American In
stitute Farmers Club Among other
things they tell the farmer how to get
rid Of worms. | mean cut worms, wire
worms and SIGH, that sometimes
trouble the corn when first planted.
They explain to us the difference be.
tween them; the wire worm works at
the root Of the plant, the cut worm
rises up out OF the ground, and
takes his little Ratchet, or
such tools as Nature provides him
with, and cuts it down. This is all
made plain, and then they tell us how
to get rid of the cut worm, by sprink,
ling tobacco around each hill /, as a
temperance man, object to this, it
NAV introduce bad habits into the
cut worm family. Wonder if he uses
fine cut, or lets the worm cut II along
with the corn? Another gentleman
rises aud tells how to get rid OF the
wire worm-he mixes equal parts of
plaster and ashes, and various other
articles together, and hauls it to the
field in barrels, and puts pint IN the
bottom Of each hill. This is little
better; but just why it is necessary to
haul it in barrels he doesn't state.
Now this may do very well for garden
patches in New York City, but if the
gentleman means for the world to
make use of his plan he must invent
a machine to drop it along with the
seed for us western farmers. Ii he
means it for those localities in the
East. where | have heard it said they
shoot the seed into the crevlces OF the
rocks with shot gun, ne should tell
them to first ram down the seed and
then fill up with the worm ''pizen."
Another highly practical gentleman
then steps to the fore and quotes the
English method which consists in
buryng piece of potato sufficiently
near each hil to attract the worms
These slices arc 10 be taken up every
few DAYS and the larvae and worms
destroyed. This is so practical. Why
should suffering humanity, or rather
cornity, suffer longer from the raw
ages of this Tell destroyer?
Fancy small farmers with but forty
acres Of corn, which aggregate 1907
600 bills, going through the routine
of examining his loo, 900 poIato-traps
twice a week. The cleanser of the
Auoean stables would have stood
aobast before such task as
this What time would the farmer
have to hold sweet converse with the
reaper agent and lightning-rod man2
How could he attend TO the wants o.
his mother in-law if he was obliged to
snend all his time in the field, on his
knees clawing ont his potato traps !?
How would it sound when one OF the
aforesaid gentlemen called, to tell him
the old man was ont in the field trap
ping for worms!