The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1884-01-31
Pests Of the Farm.

1t is q great help in dealing with any
sort of trouble to understand its nature
and character There is always some
fundamental pr 'iplc at the bottom Of
every problem which the farmer has to
solve, and if he can only understand this
principle and will 90 ack to it when he
has to contend with any difficulties aris-
ing f;om one of these questions, he can
generally make his own rules and find
his own remedies. In regal d to the
question under consideration, for IN
stan e, the fundamental principle of it
is this: That all sorts Of para sites upon
amin ais and vegetables, whether animal
or vegetable them>elves, 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 orr anisms become the prey
and 70 of lower class of creatures,
until finally all organic matter is re-
duced 10 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 by some accidental in ury,
and Immediately we find it infested with
insect pests, lice and other vermin, or
by internal vegetable parasites, viii, h
feed upon its diseased secretions, and
unless the conditions by which they are
supported and encouraged are changed
W proper remedies, these para ties soon
kill the animals or pants and quickly
reduce them to disorgani2ed matter.
This is the history so far as we know,
of nearly all more serious disorders
which affect animals and vegetables,
and we may we'll 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 now
in the vermjn which infest his weak,
poorly fed animals, and in the rot and
decay which destroys the pota Oes 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
tilthily housed fowls that are eaten alive
Win uCdS, ~, GOc, II IL lLC IlluC-DOulu
and never brushed COWS and horses
which are plagued with vermin and
with skin dis asses, all parasitic in their
character, the ill-ventilated and foul
stables in which CHAMBERS, farcy, and
other infectious and contagious diseases
IRE 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 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 hea tn in
ourselves and in our animals and our
crops and fruit trees by every possbl
sanitary precaution, by the most scru-
pulous cleanliness in every way, by
wholesome and adequate feeding, and
y protection from the injurious effects
+ exposure to cold or damp.-M Y
Times,