Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1910-09-01
CAMPBELL OF BROWN COUNTY
THE FATHER OF SCIENTIFIC
FILLING OF THE SOIL
POTATO BUG And DROUGHT
Professor Perisho of VermilIicn Says
the Vines We're Dead at Critical
Time and Next Year Will
be Potato Year

Thursday, discussed some matters of
particular Importance to the people of
South Dakota.
He explained fully and clearly the
aims and objects of the law of the
initiative and referendum and the law
of the recall, which are now in force
in this state and gave several illus
trations from the experiences of other
states with these laws, which shed
light upon each and every feature OF
them.
Prof. Perisho then rapidly analysed
the different propositions which are
before the people of South Dakota, in
the approaching campaign and cleo
ton and called attention to the seven
foot ballot which the people of this
state will be expected to vote ct that
election.
He stated that seven-eighths of the
printing on the ballot referred to the
state military law and he frankly
confessed that he does not understand
| that law, what it means or what it is
intended TO do, If it is enacted into
/ law by the votes Of the people at the
next election.
At 1870 o'clock Prof. Perisho talk
ed on dry farming and he stated that
the father of dry farming in the
United States is former South Da-
kotan, and that the place of birth Of
the idea and the theory and the place
of the first test of dry farming is
South Dakota.
"a man named Campbell, who lived
at one time in Brown county, this
state, in the dryest years in the his
tory of this northwest 1893 and 1894,
proved by experiments in those two
years, that good crops can be raised
by dry farming, as he called it, said
Prof. Perisho.
Campbell proved that five tons of
hay can be moved from one acre of
ground, with only one foot or twelve
inches of moisture in twelve months
on any soil. if we but know how to
take care Of that moisture and pre-
serve 1t. Campbell gathered 124 BUSH
els Of potatoes from an acre Of ground,
in the same year that his father, who
lived on the next farm, got no pOta-
toes whatever.
"Campbells work was SO important
and so enlightening to the agriculture
al experts of the state of Nebraska
that he was employed by that state tc
go to an experimental farm for dry
farming near Hastings, Neb., to in.
struct students in the science.
"And so successfully did his theory
work out at that farm that the United
States government sent the best ex
perts it had in the department of agri
culture, over which Tama Jim Wilson
one of the most successful farmer:
Iowa ever had, presides, to study dry
farming under Campbell, a South Da
kota man, whose neighbors in Brown
county, at one time believed to be {
crank and on the subject of raising
crops without water, very lunatlc.
"Mr Campbell is the father of thu
dry farming movement in the arid re
gions of this country He has con
WINGED the men who make science o
the cultivation of the earth, that hi
theory is not only correct but tina
any man can farm anywhere, accord
ing to it, and be successful"
He brands the potato bug as fel
low william to the fly. His remark
did not bear upon the work of the pc
tato bug as a conveyance for diseas
germs, which perhdous reputation. h
has hung upon the house fly so effect
lively that it will never rub off, but h
did tell how Mr. Potato Bug break
into the potato market and keeps tn
man of the house digging down in hi
corduroys for the simoleons wit
which to purchase spuds, that tn
healthy South Dakota boy and gil
may receive the nourishment whic
they require In order to get to schoc
= and study hard.
This potato bug thing is curse t
this country when he has an oppor
8 tunity to be anything at all. He dc
/ posits his eggs on the leaf of the pc
/ tato plant. the egg is Matched by tn
r warmth of the sun, the little bu
= drops off the leaf and burrows int
the ground to come forth later and es
\ up the potato vines.
:. "But you will find potato bugs fe'
I next year l think" said Prof. Per
q sho," because the bug which We
9 Matched this year found very little
l. eat when he came out of the groun
y on a foraging expedition, after
\ had been Matched and burrowed int
, the earth.
: "You remember that potato vine
. died early this year. for lack of moi
9 ture, Well, those vines died betee
I the time the little bugs dropped Q
!. the potato and burrowed into Il
t. earth and the time of their comir
q forth again and when they did con
II out of the ground they found no vim
q upon which TO perch and fiji their Ii
= tie stomachs. Therefore they al,
: nearly all of them starved to deaf
1t and will not be around next SUNNI
Dead potato bugs lay no eggs ar
e I think there will be a wonderful p
f. tato crop in South Dakota next year
a. Scotland-Adam Mehrer of MEM
a. dropped dead here Monday mornil
II from heart failure. He came
~ on the early train, returning from
q trip to North Dakota, and she
time later complained of pain
. his heart and difficulty in breathir
He went to the office of DR.. Ston
braker, but before help could be 81
. en- him he dropped dead. Mr. Mehr
n