River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-01-14
The Farmers Institute.


We have had a very nice and seem.
ingly successful Farmers Institute.
The men sent by Mr.. Morrison to con-
duct it are well skilled in the manage.
ment of these farmer meetings and in
the various topics of their home ex'
perience and experiments.
They come to us with the fresh
facts CLEANED at home in farm bust
ness and give us our moneys worth
every time, and it would seem to be
in line of duty and pleasure, too, jus,
now, while it is fresh, to take some
pains to fix the valuable knowledge in
our minds and memories as part OF
an abiding fund to be used or impart.
ed at will, as occasion calls for it.
We think home talent no mean fact
or or force in these Institutes; we
know, indeed, that home experience,
as related by the neighbor just over
there In sight, is the very spice of il;
but is it not mere winter day flash
with many OF us, more amusing than
abiding, quite too commonly set under
the bushel until wanted next winter
again at the institute, to be repro.
duced without gain, confirmation, or
interest!
If each one in his farm work next
year would keep the facts CLEANED
here to-day aglow before him, adding
or improving little, as interest. for
the benefit of next years meeting, II
would accord with duty and progress
sion.
As a mitethen, for fear we will for.
get. / will notice some facts, or points
of interest in our business worth d
trial consideration.
We all remember the scares. the
damage, and frequent fatal depreda.
tions 20 crops, of our insect enemies
the grasshopper, the potato bug, the
chinch bug, etc., all more or less un
der our control when we found out
how to do it; and now another family
the cutworm, begins to be prominent
as an adversary, having nearly Oh
quite destroyed several fields of corr
and potatoes in this neighborhood
within two years, and pretty gener
ally spread over the northwest. as his
m tar a.
and necessity taught us to curb, Oh
circumvent their depredations in q
very beneficial degree.
Mr.. Goodrich, at the Farmers In
stitute last Thursday, gave US the best
history of the origin, habits. and way
to combat this little foe, of any YET
published, l think. 1t is, that in
August the mother, a little fy, moth
or miller, lays the eggs on the grass
of pasture or meadow, and the worms
hatch out by the hot sun and go dowr
into the ground below pillow or harm:
way, to spend the winter, returning
to the surface in the spring for food
and if in the meantime the sod, tim
othy, clover, or anything, has beer
plowed under and green crops of any
kind whatever are on the land it i!
eaten by them and thus destroyed, a!
too many know already.
Mr.. Goodrich $ plan is to pillow under
the grass supposed to be infested will
eggs before they have had time Il
hatch, probably about the last of Aug
ust, and they will not hatch I'm der tn,
ground. Plow shallow, he says, anC
replow in the spring for crops.
His next plan is ION grass ground
if the land is thought to be infested
to plow late in the spring, after tn,
grass has quite start, turning worms
grass and all under together; hurry
up the seeding and planting while th,
worms work away on the grass turned
under with them, which he says they
will do as long as it is tolerably fresi
without coming to the surface to med
die with anything. Their principa
work is done by the first of June il
southern Wisconsin. Here it is later
More hereafter. s.