The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-28
KANSAS BUGS.
They Are of Many Varieties and of
Great VOracity.

Kansas City Journal.
Il want to tell you, gentlemen" said the
Garden City man, as he fished a two-pound
onion out of his gripsack, that irrigation
is going to turn western Kansas into
garden gar The man who irrigates . out there
We'll you may be right" remarked
sad-eyed man. who hadn't said word up
to this time, but my experience doesn't
go to show that irrigation is all a man
needs out West. I went down into Stan
ton county three years ago and started
little irrigation plant. l had 1t fixed TO
water about two acres. and my wife and
1 used to figure together on the amount of
stuff we could raise on that two-acre patch.
| divided It up and planted an acre IN po-
tatoes, half an acre in onions and the rest
in peas, beans and other vegetables, and
sat down to see 'em grow-and they would
show; but, sir, before / got the seed in the
ground two hundred and fourteen different
kinds of bugs moved in and camped around
the patch. waiting for things to come up:
I'm something of a bugologist myself-uSed
to be able to give the names and family
history of two hundred different kinds of
bugs-and, do you know. when L came to
walk around my patch the next morning
after l got things planted, found every
kind of a blamed bug ] had ever seen sit
ting around waiting for things TO come up,
and besides what 1 knew there were four
teen or fifteen different kinds of bugs I
had never heard Of before. There wasn't
another truck patch within twenty miles
and those bugs acted as If they had struck
a picnic. Well. sir, those internal bugs
around in the ground to see whether the
potatoes and onions and things had sprout-
ed yet. / tried all sorts of things to Kill
the pesky bugs. but where one bug died
three Of its friends came to attend the fu-
neral.
scattered around over the patch. | didn't
notice any falling off Of bugs. but $40
COW pulled up her picket pin and stroled
over into the patch and filled up on veg
etable tops in the night The cow was
called to her long home. suppose. At any
rate we found her dead the next morning.
In the fall dug four bushels of potatoes
and three bushels of onions. Including the
loss of the COW, the potatoes cost me S25
a bushel and the onions more yet.
There isn't any question that irrigation
would be a complete success out in that
country if you had bug-tight fence
Speaking about bugs" said the old
to be. Some people think the bedbug goes
with civilization, but / want to tell you
that the bedbug was native OF western
Kansas and built her home in the cotton
started north to find the tabled cities of
Ouivira. ] stepped in the first cottonwood
shanty that served as a hotel in Wichita.
and there were old. gray-headed bugs there
VI no had just come in from camp on the
Arkansas. There weren't any young. ten
der bugs, that had started when the hotel
did. They were all hardened and weather.
beaten. showing that they had lived there
and then went out on the prairie to sleep.
Well sir. I hadn't been asleep half an hour
till those cussed bugs struck my track and
followed ii like trail hounds till they found
where / was. And then they caught the
blanket in their teeth and pulled il off me
so that they would have better show TO
feed"
The real-estate man arose and silently
shook the old-timer's hand. He felt that
there was bond OF union. He was some
thing of liar himself.