The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1915-08-06
Entered at the postoffice at Black
loot, Idaho, as second class matter.
RELIEF FOR THE FARMERS

gusted and sick at heart. He owes a
number of people, things look like
he wasn't going to have much money
after harvest or at any other time,
he gets the idea that the men carry
ing his accounts are afraid he will
not or cannot pay, he is SO sun burn
ed he hardly knows himself when
he looks in the mirror. and he wishes
he had settled in some other part
of the world where irrigation is un-
known. He would pull up stakes
and leave right now if he could only
get matters Strengthened up. Forget
it!
There never was anything worth
while that people were not sick of
before 1t was completed. There are
lots of things we have not been
troubled with in this locality. 1t
has been long, long time since we
have had any prairie fires. Kansas
cyclones, hot winds, destructive
floods, grasshoppers, crickets, locusts,
chinch bugs, bowl weevil, potato
bugs, sick wheat, milk sickness, milk
snakes, fever and ague-there's lot
more things we might mention If we
knew what they are, but we haven't
had them for SO long we have for
gotten what they are. We have only
had irrigation; plenty of water when
we don't care for it, and too little
when we need it. That's where the
shoe pinches.
Just when we need the water the
worst we 60 out getting it if we
can. We need big feeder for each
set of canals and we have never had
the courage to undertake building
them. We nesd more reservoirs in
the mountains to store the winter
and spring flow but we have never
built them. The trouble with us
mortals is that we never know just
what is good for us until we take
the medicine and make our humble
kick. To illustrate: Down in the
southern states the department of
agriculture preached for years and
years that the planters should diver
sify their farming, and not depend
on cotton altogether. They turned
a deaf ear; then the Lord, or some
body else sent boil weevil to destroy
the cotton crop, and they had to do
something. They found that cult
walton Of the soil at times when they
did not cultivate cotton was the thing
to kill the deadly boil weevil. Well,
they diversified their farming and
now they have more food on their
tables and less plaster" (mort-
gages) on their lands.
Down in Costa RIGA, part of
the isthmus that joins North and
South America, they had scourge
of lucusts, but not so bad as in
Honduras, an adjoining country. The
locusts like Honduras so well they
remained and wore out their well
come; they wore out everything else
too. The mechanics in Costa RIGA !
said there must be some way to kill
the locusts, and they invented can
non which they could load with sand
and shoot it into swarm of locusts /
and kill them enmasse. They in I
vented fire crackers and rockets that ,
explode and leave a gass that is dead |
ly to locusts. They found lots of
ways to kill them, but it required !
the whole population to operate the I
killing devices, and while the people 4
rested and slept the locusts would I
keep coming. They have been test
ing the whole matter there this /
spring, for the locusts visited Costa
Rica by the multiplied billions. They h
had tag day" to kill locusts, and \
there were not enough tag days to |,
go round The whole country was \
being stripped of its vegetation, when \
the scientists showed their hand. h
They had been experimenting with |,
a parasite that makes locusts \
"wormy." And when locusts get suf- 4
ficiently wormy they die. They cross
ed these parasites until they got !,
vigorous and contagious. n
A few of the sick locusts scattered 4
over the country gave the disease to ID
of others in few days, and
lead locusts were tumbling to the II
ground everywhere. When the scien- i,
lists found they had the right dope" N
hey arranged to keep turning infect y
ID locusts loose along the border all :
he time and they rid their country k
# them by making them deadly sick 9
DON after crossing the boundary N
of acres of the sugar a
,anes had been stripped of leaves '
nd it proved the better for It, Costa n
,icans are betting on their scientists h
ow, and are daring the locusts to
ONE over. b