JULY 1, 1914 



525 



liave been coming to for some time ; and it 

 will apply to rats and mice, potalo-bugs, 

 squash-bug's, flies, mosquitoes, ants, etc. Get 

 I'ight after them; mash them right and left 

 whenever an opportunity offers, and all 

 these pests will sooner or later give your 

 locality a wide berth. 



I have not yet used any poison on my 

 potato-bugs this year at all; but, of course, 

 I have not a very large patch of potatoes. 

 It is mostly the one row of Early Ohio 1 

 have mentioned. I go along this row every 

 morning, noon, and night, and sometimes 

 oftener, picking off every mature bug I can 

 find, dropping them on the ground, and 

 crushing them with a twisting motion of my 

 foot. I think the smell of the crushed bugs 

 has much to do with their keeping away 

 new comers. You may recall that Terry 

 thinks it is cheaper to hand-pick the first 

 " mother " bugs that appear, before they 

 have time to lay eggs, than to use poison. 

 Of course, this applies only where the bugs 

 are found in limited numbers. 



Now, please remember this : Get right 

 after whatever annoys you in the garden or 

 in the poultry-house. Give them no quartei'. 



CHICKEN MITES — A CAUTION. 



And this reminds me that I had a very 

 nice coop made for a hen and chickens. Tt 

 had wire-cloth doore so as to keep out rats 

 and all other kinds of vermin. It had also a 

 good roof and a door for the little chicks, a 



ROBBING SICK people; QUACK DOCTORS, ETC. 



One of the best boys I ever had in my 

 employ began helping me in the garden 

 when he was scarcely a dozen years old. In 

 fact, I put him in as a boy foreman when 

 we were gTowing plants for sale, and I gave 

 you his picture years ago where he had 

 about a dozen other youngsters in charge. 

 Four or five years ago, from lifting or 

 something of the sort, he had a pain in his 

 side. He consulted several of our home 

 physicians, but there seemed to be a dis- 

 agreement in regard to where the trouble 

 was. Different doctors from time to time 

 were so sure they could cure him that it took 

 about all he could earn for several years to 

 pay his doctor bills. About a year ago I 

 found he was paying a woman for chiro- 

 practic treatment, and had paid her quite 

 a little money. I advised him to go to the 

 city and have an operation. But he dreaded 

 an operation, and kept putting it off. As 

 several of our readers have asked me in 

 reference to chiropractic, and as Mrs. Root 



place where the hen can sit on the bare 

 ground or on the bare floor, as she thinks 

 best. I loaned this coop to a neighbor, as 

 i( was not in use. In fact, 1 assured him he 

 could have it " just as well as not." When 

 it came home last fall, it was put away 

 safely in the back cellar. When I got it out 

 for the hen and chickens a few days ago it 

 was almost literally alive with mites so 

 minute that one could iiardly see them witli 

 the naked eye unless it was out in the full 

 rays of the sun. I mixed up some kerosene 

 and mothballs and soaked the whole struc- 

 ture — every crack and crevice — and I think 

 I hey are all dead. Now, is it not a little 

 strange that these mites lived for six months 

 or even more in a cold dark cellar, without 

 any " visible means of support "? My im- 

 pression is that they ate into the wood 

 where there was no paint, and found suffi- 

 cient sustenance on the decaying wood to 

 keep them alive for six months, and possi- 

 l)ly the mites might have been in a dormant 

 condition, or perhaps the eggs laid last fall 

 just hatched out. 



Let me say in closing that it is a com- 

 mendable thing to be ready and willing to 

 lend things to your neighbors — especially 

 those things you are not using yourself; but 

 if you should lend a chicken-coop, look out 

 that it does not have something inside when 

 it comes back that it did not have when it 

 went away. 



NOTE 



had a stiff neck on account of catching culd, 

 I went with her to the woman doctor for 

 treatment. She said something was out of 

 place in Mrs. Root's neck, and added that 

 she could fix it all right. After she had 

 manipulated for ten or fifteen minutes, and 

 had received her dollar, Mrs. Root mention- 

 ed that she was going to the dentist's. 



" Oh dear me! " said the women doctor, 

 " the dentist will get your neck all out of 

 place again, and after you have been there 

 you will have to come back and have it done 

 all over again." As that would cost another 

 dollar, Mrs. Root and J thought we had in- 

 vested enough in that line. It did not do 

 Mrs. Root a particle of good; and when the 

 woman mentioned that she had entirely 

 cured an acquaintance of ours who had a 

 " course of treatment," we took pains to 

 inquired of said friend. She replied prompt- 

 ly that her son had paid the woman a lot of 

 money for treatment, and it had done no 

 good at all. Now for the moral of my little 

 story. 



