The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-03-08
Pests Of the Farm.


It is a great help in dealing vita any
sort of trouble to understand its nature
and character There is always some
fundamental rnciple at the bottom of
every problem which the farmer has to
solve, and if he can only understand this
principle and will go hack to it when he
has to contend with any difficulties aris-
ing from one of these questions, he can
generally make his own rules and find
his own remedies. In regard to the
question under consideration, for ln-
stanee, 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 il not always by some
living agency or organism; so that life
is supported by decay and death, and
the higher orc anisms become the prey
and food of 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 plant becomes weakened
by disease, or by some accidental injury,
| and Immediately we find it infested with
insect pests, lice and other vermin, or
by internal vegetable parasites, which
1 feed upon its diseased secretions, and
unless the conditions by which they are
supported and encouraged are changed
by proper remedies, these parasites soon
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 our
knowledge in this respect becomes larger
and 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 nov
in the vermin which infest his weak,
poorly fed animals, and in the rot and
decay which destroys the potatoes In
his cellar. It is the weak. half-fed
| starveling calf which swarms with lice
and the thin sheep which suffer from
blood-sueking ticks, and the ill-kept ane
filthily housed fowls that are eaten alive
with fieas; so, too, it is the hide-bounC
and never brushed COWS and horse!
which are plagued with vermin ami
with skin diseases, all parasitic in theil
character, the ill-ventilated and fou
stables in which CHAMBERS, farcy, AM
other infectious and contagious diseases
are rife, and the over eorn-fed and FOUL,
watered swine which become the pre-.
to cholera. 1t is precisely the sam
with human beings, among whom dis
eases are sure TO follow those unwhole
some and injurious conditions whicl
weaken and undermine the health.
There is o lesson in all this, not onl,
to farmers, but all others. And tn
point and moral of it is that we mus
maintain condition of robust health il
ourselves and in our animals and on
crops and fruit trees by every poSsibl
sanitary precaution, by the most scru
pulous cleanliness in every way, b
wholesome and adequate feeding, an
by protection from the injurious effect
of exposure to cold or damp.-M ]
Times,