The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1912-08-27
Story For Farmer Boys.

the News, so | will tell you of a
dream | had one day when | was
thinking how to help the boys to
have a better time IN thecountry.
1t was not the kind of dream we
have while sleeping, but it was
one of those dreams" we some.
times have when we are widest
awake.
| dreamed of what Fulton coun-
ty would be like if each and every
man and woman over eighteen
years of age was doctor-a real
doctor-educated in our schools
OF medicine, so that they were
skillful IN the prevention, detec-
ton, and cure, of all Ills. What
wonderful county this would be!
Think of 1t! Can you im agine
how 1t would feel to live IN place
like that? Stop a moment and
read that again. 1t sounds fun.
ny, does it not? "Foolish TO think
of it," do you say? Well let us
see about that.
sickness" is net confined to
your, and to my, body. There IS
sickness on every farm IN this
and in every other county in
Pennsylvania that is costing us
so much money that thousands of
US are kept poor during all our
lives. 1t is called Soil Sickness,
and it needs just as intelligent at
tentlon from q doctor as do meas
les, typhoid, or tuberculosis, for
which we Call in the best doctor
in the community. The man or
woman who can intelllgentIy treat
soil Sickness Is every whit as
much OF a doctor as is the man
who can cure typhoid. There IS
not a man or woman in the
country, if he or she have aver
age intelligence, that cannot be.
come a sklllful soil doctor. There
are few counties IN the State in
which start has been made to
make every farmer a doctor. and
1t was my dream to picture to my
mind what it would be like to live
In county like that. Hundreds
Of changes in our daily work will
take place when each man be-
comes his own soil doctor. To-
day we buy fertilizer just like we
buy patent medlclne-nostrums
about which we know nothing;
but we buy 1t because the quack
who compounded 1t says 1t is
good for pretty nearly every
thing; and many of US will not
listen to the advice of the dealer
who would rather sell US the
proper kind, and would do so If
we told him what we wanted to
cure by telling him the "symp-
TOMS"
The patent medicines we buy
for our soils are put up IN bags,
and labeled "Potato," "Corn,"
Crop Grower, Grass" and a
lot more brands that are about
as apt to be what our soil needs
as are the patent medicines we
buy "sight unseen" for our bod
les, and which leave bad effects
as often as we take them, because
they contain something that Is
not suited to our particular case.
There is no reason why all should
not be soil doctors, because there
are less than a half dozen medl-
clnes that we absolutely need to
know how to compound; while
the man who doctors our bodies
must know how to compound a
hundred klnds-some of which
would explode aud blow him to
pieces If he happened to mix the
wrong kinds. Just as no two
men sick with typhoid can be
treated exactly alike, on account
of constitutional differences, so
no two felds-or both sides of
the same tield-can he treated
alike without injury to one of
them, and this injury costs dear
ly.
If the News is not correct in
it's efforts to stir up more of it's
readers to the realization of the
need of at least one County Soil
Doctor to live with us and guide