Charlevoix county herald., 1914-08-08

A great part of the run down farms
that are i'm every community not only
in this state but i'm others, if their his
BY that time there Is a ring OF
June grass, around the field and they
cut out a part or perhaps most all
of the clover. Perhaps favorable sea-
sons have resulted in fair catch, but
i'm any case the farmer will cut II year
after year until the clover is all killed
out and even the timothy which is
often sowed with it has given place
to June grass. The soil has become
packed 50 that the nitrogen gathered
by the bacteria on the legumeS has
been either absorbed by the June
grass or timothy or has been dis
PEELED by anarchic bacteria. The far,
mer Flows it up and gets a partiaS
crop of corn or potatoes, and again
attempts to seed. But from the wide
margin so many times left along TN
road, from late developments of June
grass where clean cultivation should
have been from hillsides and ravines
that cannot be cultivated with profit,
from the cut over land held by the
big timber companies, and from the
fields on deserted farms comes a horde
of the hOppers and what chance has
the young clover and alfalfa? The
owner, failing in a catch that year,
must get clean cultivation by raising
a cultivated crop and he feels he can
not afford to work the land without.
Each year the humus content is being
reduced.
The grasshoppers begin mating in
late August or September and lay
1, hnnnoth bn
each pair laying about one hundred
eggs, most all of which if undisturbed
will bring forth a hopper, the pods
are capped over by gummy sub
stance which prevent water getting in
or narrowed so as to break up the 4
pods. But you can't do that on un-'
cleared land, not on side hills nor on
other mems land
The hoppers hatch out on the fol-
lowing spring about the usual time of
sowing clover Thus the destruction
goes OF.
As to remedies. there are several,
but there will be need of legislation
and the people should demand of it's
law makers such changes as will aid
rather than hinder the means of clean
ing them up.
One of the most efficient means of
Kidding neighborhood of them when
they are in large numbers, is TO burn
over the grass patches, especially the
June grass when the hoppers are
small. The greater part of them will
be overtaken and killed and besides
their hiding places will be destroyed
and birds and other things will prey
on them and many will be killed by
those means. But right here the law
is hindrance
1t is hard to get people to coop
crate in the work of burning over
tracts at the right time. One can't
burn when it is wet and as soon as it
get dry there are those who are quot
ing the law that forbids setting fires
that might endanger property. The
law should be so amended as to give
people under proper restrictions to so
burn over lands to save their crops.
Then the owners of land should be re-
sponsible for allowing hoppers to
breed on their places. This would
reach the careless and maybe lazy far
mer, the absent land owner who owns
hatchey, and put the burden up to
them as it should be.
But probably the greatest means Of
determination is by focks Of turkeys.
These birds have cleaned up many
places in the west and in neighbor-
hoods here where they are raised in
quantities, the hoppers disappear.
If parties will study them. and
have a fixed income of 100000 a
ally will find them as easy to raise as
other birds and there is a good profit
in them. Send to Washington for Bull
letin No 200.
Poisons in the form Of Criddles
mixture or bran, molasses and Paris
Green may work well in some cases.