Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-02-22
Pests Of the Farm.

1t is a great help in dealing with any
sort of trouble to understand it's nature
and character. There is always some
fundamental principle at the bottom OF
every problem which the farmer has to
solve, and if he a only understand this
principle and will go back to it when he
has to contend with any difficulties aris-
ing from n Of these questions, he can
generally make his own rules and find
his own remedies. In regard to the
question under consideration, for IN.
stance, the fundamental principle of it
is this: That all sorts of para; ites upon
animals and vegetables, whether animal
or vegetable themselves, are simply
means for the destruction of diseased
and useless matter. Nature always
throws out and gets rid of its wastes,
and generally if not always by some
living agency or organism; so that life
is supported by decay and death, and
the higher organisms become the prey
and food of a lower class of creatures,
until finally all organic matter is re.
duced to inorganic, ultimate, and in.
offensive elements, by the very lowest
class OF organized creatures. Thus an
animal or a plant becomes weakened
by disease, or bysome accidental injury,
and Immediately we find it infested with
insect pests, lice and other vermin, OF
by internal vegetable parasites, which
feed upon its diseased secretions, and
unless the conditions by which they are
supported and encouraged are changed
by proper remedies, these parasites Q o
Kill the animals or plants and quickly
reduce them to disorganized matter.
This is the history so far as we know,
OF nearly all more serious disorders
which affect animals and vegetables,
and we may well believe that as u
knowledgei in this respect becomes larger
ana more accurate, we may find in this
principle the key to all diseases which
destroy organized life.
The farmer who may doubt it may
find an example of the truth Just now
III the vermin which infest his weak,
poorly fed animals, and in the rot and
decay which destroys the potatoes in
his cellar. 1t is the weak, half-fed
%starveling calf which swarms with lice,
and the thin sheep which suffer from
blood-sucking ticks, and the ill-kept and
hlthlly housed fowls that are eaten alive
with t1eas; so, too, it is the hide-bound
and never brushed COWS and horses
which are plagued with vermin and
with skin diseases, all parasitic in their
character, the ill-ventilated and foul
stables in which CHAMBERS, farcy, and
other infectious and contagious diseases
are rife, and the over corn-fed and foully
watered swine which become the prey
to cholera. 1t is precisely the same
with human beings, among whom dis.
eases are sure to follow those unwho!e.
some and injurious conditions which
weaken and undermine the health.
There is a lesson in all this, not only
to farmers, but all others. And the
point and moral of it is that we must
maintain a condition of robust health in
ourselves and in our animals and oul
crops and fruit trees by every possible
sanitary %precaution, by the most scrrl.
pulous cleanliness in every way, by
wholesome and adequate feeding. and
~ protection from the injurious effects
Of exposure to cold OF damp.-M Y.
Times.