8/14/2019 Memories of a Virus Similar To Swine flu (from 1976 Gazette)

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Th e Cedar R ap id s G aze l l e : Sun., May a, \m 311_

1 9 7 6 b / N E A Inr.c"Zeke, I'm alraid your swine has 'human tlu'!"

Memories of a Virus Similar To Swine fluBy Deborah K. SimonDrake University Journalism Student[Distr ibuted by the lo*o Dol ly P r e s s Assoc i a t i on )

DES MO I N E S More than 6,000 lowans died duringthe 1918 Spanish i n f lu e n za epidemic, which may have beencaused by a virus similar to the swine flu virus.During the three-month epidemic, there were 93,590cases of Spanish influenza and pneumoniaand 6,116 deaths,according to the 19th bienni al report of the Iowa StateBoard of Health.The epidemic was recalled by an lowan during a recentinterview. Helen Parker, who was then 12, said, "My g ran d -mother died. The thing I remember was that people weredying so fast, th e coffins were piled up in f ro n t of Harbach's(funeral home in Des Moines) , wooden boxes just stackedup."Army Camps Hit Hardest

A retired physician. Dr . Grace Doane of Des Moines,said the i n f lu e n za hit army camps such as Camp Dodg e thehardest. "Every day there were four or five or six funeralsfor soldiers," said Doane."Many of the boys were from the South and theyweren't used to our cold winter . That was one of the coldestwinters we had in a long time," said Doane.On Oct. 1, 1918, newspaper report s said the "dreaded"Spanish influenza had struck Camp Dodge. Within a weekthe number of influenza cases at the camp soared f rom 300to more than 3,000.Dr. Clement A. Sones of Des Moines, who'was in the ar-

Good Bugs A l w a y s WinByAlSwegle

G R E E L E Y Ralph Engelken, 49, has been turningbugs into friends for some 19 years now, proving that goodbugs as wel l as good guys always win if given half achance.1Engelken gave up on chemicals and sprays to controlweeds and insects some nine years after he started farming,and since then he's relied on the good bugs to f ight off theba d ones in the true balance-of -nature tradition."With our modern ways of plant ing corn, we've" kill edso many of the beneficial bact eria in the soil that we've lostour concept of what nature's balance will do for us," En-gelken said.

Give Fertility'The bugs give the soil its fertility, but the bugs can'tlive under all the chemicals we put on."Four lady bugs were perched on a nearby clump of al-fa lfa while Engelken talked."I haven't had any problems with aphid s and weevils inmy alfalfa f ie ld this year, because of them," Engelken saidpointing to the lady bugs. "My neighbors have, and some inthis county sprayed for alfalfa weevils last year."Engelken believes his crops grown organically are ofhigher quality an d produce faster gains in hi s SO O headfeedlot. Tests have shown that his corn contains 12 percentprotein and his haylage 24 percent.His concepts of farming are considered out-of -step w i t htoday's reliance on pesticides to control those troublesomeweeds and insects. But Engelken expects farmers will beforced to give up that reliance in the future.

Energy CrunchPesticides are petrochemicals, made from oil, and asthe energy crunch gets tighter in the decades to come,farmers will be forced to give up their dependence on pesti-

cides, he believes.The University of St. Louis is studying this very subjecton Engelken's farm. A study last year shbwed Engelken canproduce comparable yields to farmers who use pesticides ata fraction of the cost, both monetarilyand in terms of ener-,gy consumption."I am not criticizinghow others farm, and I'm not t e ll-ing them how to farm," ho said, "but I can produce thesame crop for $20 and $30 an acre that other farmer s can

fmrut Newsproduce for S80 and $90 an acre."The St. Louis study showed that Engelken used only athird of the energy other farmers used In producing a crop,a key point.

Respectable YieldsLast year his corn yields on his rolling farm near Gree-ley in Delaware county have ranged from 100 bushels anacre on dry land to 155 bushels an acre. One 30 acre fieldwhich has been in continuous corn for nine years produced

150 bushel an acre yield.Despite dry weather in his area last year, Engelken pr o-duced three crops of alfalfa, each crop as vigorous as the other. He has averaged 12 tons of haylage per acre the pastfive years, and has beaten that average by a considerablemargin some years.The switchover some 19years ago was tricky,Engelkenadmitted last week. "You can't expect bugs to thrive w her e-there's cement, and that's what .the ground seemed like aft-er all those years of chemical treatments," Engelken said.

Manure Compost Pile"Weeds grow because of an imbalance in fert i l i ty in thesoil. We had every, kind of weed on this farm when we start-ed this program, but they were gone as wo became moreexperienced in organic farming.'The key to fertile soil is the bugs, and they can't sur-vive with all the chemicals."E ng el ken has been growing good bugs in a manurecompost pile for about n in e years now. The good bugs,called anaerobic bacteria, can survive in the oxygen in the

outside world, and "do the work in the soil," as Engelkenputs-i t . Anaerobic bacteria are what make nutrients av a i l a -ble to plants.He purposely located one of his compost piles next tohis house to point out that the good bugs can take away theodor associated .with manure as v/ell as speed up the de-com pos i t i on process. Yesterday he hosted a group of f a rm-ers attending a manure com pos t i ng conference at his f o rm.The bugs turn the manure into f e r t i l e compost in threeweeks' time something that under ordinary c i r cum s t a nceswould take a year. The compost stacks are stirred twice aweek over a three week period.

N at io n a l SpeakerThen the compost Is ready to spread on his f ie lds . En -gelken will be harvesting a crop of rye next week, and heplans to spread the compost on the rye f ie ld before heplants it to corn. He does the same thing between c u t t in g s

of a lfa lfa ."It takes 50 percent more time, but It's worth it, he ad -ded.Engelken tests all of his soil. He relies on (he bugs andthe legumes to come up with the nitrogen In his crop rota-t ion and he applies organic forms of phosphorous and phos-phate according to the soil tests.Engelken, an Iowa Master Farmer, is recognized na -tionally as an expert on the subject. He's given speeches in15 states, receives letters daily f rom organic growers, an dhas 1,000 letters on h a n d right now which he hasn't hadt i m e to answer.

Judging Session Set .for 4-H'e rs

m y during the epidemic, said, "1 was at sea at the l ime itbroke, but I remember hearing that they couldn ' t getenough caskets to take care of their men."'The Spanish flu was caused by a vi rus t h a t no one hadany i m m u n i t y to," said Sones.As the epidemic reached its peak at Camp Dodge,hundreds of people wrote suggesting home remedies t h a tranged from rubbing lemon oil on the victim's left shoulderto eating q u an t i t i e s of onions to drinkingho t l e mo n ad e .

No Specific CureBu t doctors offered no specific cure for the influenza.Dr . Guilford H. Sumner, then secretary of the slateboard of healt h, suggested prevent ive measures such ass pr a y i ng the nose and throat daily, gelling plenty of rest,keeping windows wide open, eating regularly and slayingaway from people shaking their handkerchiefs.The epidemic at Camp Dodge began to decline hut theflu spread to other parts of the state. On the 16th, Sumnersaid, "The type of influenza now sweeping the state is acommunicable an d infect ious disease re s u l t in g f rpm bloodpoisoning causing pne umonia unlike ordinary grippe." Heurged placing the state under a 30-day quarantine.

house to house."There was a shortage of physicians because so manywere in World war 1. All types of doctors, i n c lu d in g den-tists, were asked to assist in th e emergency.

Miiy Stoner Dicffenbach, now 76, was teaching schoolat Bloomfleld during th e e p id e mic . "They closed!'school fo ra week and I went b ac k hom e. My sister an d parents ha dtile flu. There wasn't any v ac c in e and they just had to getover it," said Dieffenbaeh. , ."I t seemed like Ihey ac h e d an d hur t a l l over. I t wass om et h i ng y ou hoped you'd ge t over, but 'yoj f i weren't rightsure of it," said Dicffenbach. "Anyhow thill's, ho w ihey

t a l ked about it. ". '."If they could get over the f lu without Ret t ing p n e u -m oni a they were all right ." said Dieffenbach, wh o s t i l l l ivesin B lo o mf ie ld . 'On Oct. 28 the . s t atewide q u a r a n t i n e wa s l if t ed.Influenza Cont inued ',

Bu t the Inf luenza cont inued. During Nov. 1,629 diedan d d u r i n g Dec. 2,355 d ie d , according to the 9ih B ie n n ia lReport of the Iowa State B o ard of Heal lh.L id a Greene, l i b ra r i an al Ih e Stale H is t o r i c a l Library,said, "I recall that people were discouraged from g o in g out.In some places they wore masks. We had the cheeseclothmasks, homema de, of course."People were very f r i g h t e ne d , w h ic h added to the dan-ger of the disease," said Greene. "Some people died offright because they didn't t h in k they were going lo get bet-ter."Gr a dua l l y the flu disappeared, except for f a r m s acrossthe state where f a r m er s grew alarmed at :,the number ofhogs w h ic h had caught the disease and were '

Can RecyclingDuane Fisher, Vinton Future Farmers of America

( F F A ) instructor, stands by a can crusher which theFFA chapter will use to dispose of empty herbicdecans. Disposal of the cans is a problem since thecans have been known to contaminate undergroundwater supplies. Benton county farmers can returntheir empty herbicde cans at their local chemicaldealers. The FFA chapter will crush the cans and sellthem to a salvage yard for recycing into scrap met-a l. ' .

Cal l Us For All T y p e s O f InsulationHO*0tl T"v*' < *C E D A R R A P I D S 365-FOAMvim,> """" i ' 'IOWA C I T Y 337-FOAMW A T E R L O O 236- IQAM

F O A M I N S U L A T I O N n H O M E P R O T E C T I O N , I

Ralph Engelken with the c o m p o s f bugs fhof help his crops

F a r m W i f e H a s R e s c u e Missionphoto by Al Sxt f l le

By Doris McCartneySpr i ng winds during thenight are apt to cause anoth-

er crisis on the farm. When af a rm wife is playing n u rs e -m a i d lo a flock of baby chick-ens even a s m a l l crash causespanic.Tree limbs felled by gur.lssignaled mi 1 awake on e n ig h tca us i ng me to jump f rom ;>warm bed and head fbr Ih ebrooder house.C ons i der a t i on?

Ibrowback no doubt to someunknown w i ld na t ur e , strikeschicks without warning. Be-fore the symptoms develop, Iu s u a l ly pour b ak in g soda i n t oIhe drinking water or use acommercial pr oduc t .TuckedJn

Even w el l -pa m per ed chicksdi e ac c id e n t a l ly by sneakingunder feeders or by some ri-di cu l ous gymnastic slum.Chickens, l i k e hogs, can'l

lowed lo pi le In heaps, l ie-pealed b e d t i m e checks sendme clucking In m a t er na l cir-clqs on my knees mull theb i r d s arc f ina l ly programmedlo c u d d l e wilh or w i l h o u l Ihel ig h t s .Chi cks are l i k e k id s , aslong as Ihey arc cheep i ng ,(hoy ar c t h r iv in g and b e h av -in g . ' W h e n Ihey nru hushed Idi v e in to th e broudur hous eexpecting to see a four fooledprowler has broken in loscare Ihcm.

S h uf f l i ng th e soggy bed-d i n g a r dund w a x a gesturemu c h l ik e inother does Intidying up bsUMvurs. 'A chMpUtt tune'resumedand I nolllcd llio chicks weres nug g l ed a g a i n , after Ihe

emergency.I fled back lo Ihe hous et h ro u g h In c gusty storm.Before I ' d ro p p e d off tosleep, the. Irishman s u ld ,"Count on; Hie' ,hoping for ad ru ms t i c k b y Die F o u r t h o fJuly." ' ;.'.

Linn county 4- H membersinterested in livestock j udg -ing will have their first ses-sion at 7:30 p.m., June 2, atWilson and Co.Linn county coaches Ster-l ing Young, Dennis U t h o f ,Mik e Rice, Gary Goodlove,Shir ley Kl insky an d ReaganRobinson will be i ns t r uc l i ngthe 4-H members."Livestock judg ing is some-thing thai takes lots of prac-tice an d help," Keith Wester-

camp, Linn1 county 4-H l e ad -er, said."A 4-H member gains deci-sion making tools that he canuse Ihe rest of his life, whilel e a rn in g more about l ive -stock."The 4-H members will beworking on breeding , andm a r ke t livestock in beef,swine, and sheep. For themarket classes, 4-H memberswill learn about meat prod-ucts an d grading of l i v e s t o c k .

C O G G O N L I V E S T O C K S A L E S C O .PHONE 435-2302 Phone R*s. Coggen 435-2470Kenny Hoge Res.Springvllla, 854-6957S A L E E V E R Y MONDAY A T 8 P.M.

Special for Monday May 24 r14 Angus sters-650 Ibs; 17 Angus s to ck c o ws12 with calves at tide, balance close Springers;3good young Angus bulls; 80 feeder plgs-60 Ibs.D A I L Y L I V E S T O C K M A R K E T : C A T TL E H O G SSUB SMITH, Owner and Operator

IN STOCKA good supply of new and salvage and rebuiltparts and assemblies for I.H. Tractors and im-plements. Rebuilt baler knolters and balancemower heads. Salvage I.H.mower and baler

JOE P AILU OTET CO.Riverside, Iowa (319)648-2111

"The lights are out and thechicks will smother," I m u m -bled pulling on sw e a t sh i r tan d s t a c k s ."Take my raincoat, i t'slonger," my husband, David,th e Irishman o f fe r ed .1 gr a bbed t h e ba t te r y I nn -te r n a nd s p r i n ted through Urnrainstorm. By the time Ich ecked the sm ashe d windowo n t he br ooder h ous e, I waswide aw y k o .M y s t a r hoarders, a mix-ture of pullets an d c o c k e re l s ,w e re shivering in terror,pi ed in tw o corners. Th ewind was whipping throughj a gged glass. I had to latcht h e doo r to keep it c l o se d .Since this w as n n e m e rg e n -cy, I untied th e delivery b o x -es from th e ceiling an d g a t h -ered th e c h i c k s into th e ship-nn g c o m p a r t m e n t s beforet h ey needed artificial resp ira-tion.A s I groped about on th eground corn co b bedding, 1ponder ed p r ob lems chickenr a i se rs encoun ter .Cannibalistic a t t a c k s , ln crces, a f t e r II Is dnrk.Daylight Saving time sc ram -iles their cocks, so 1usua l lydrop down plastic shades, Ifth e letnperature permits,fooling Uiem/into t h e t h i nk -ing it is past sunset .

B a b y ch i cks a re n o t al-

F O R S A L ELots of

Holstein spr ingers' on hand.F O R SALE O R R E N T

Breeding bullsof all kinds.

Ca l l (319) 855-2005no pniwtr coll I5S-3I33

A m b r o s e H e s sW orthington, I o w a

Eastern Iowa Livestock C o m m i s s i o n , Inc.U . S . HIGHWAY 30, M E C H A N I C S V I U E , IOWAL i v e s t o c k Auction Every Wednesday

Bring your calves, hogs and sheep early. Ourbuyers will be there. We will start at 12 noonevery Wednesday.A good wl l ost Wednesday . G o o d v* o$33 to $50; evil talvel $20 oS 30 - Iamb S5 9 to 5 6 4 t w t ; m a r V . e t c wei and burin SI 3 ! o S I 4; e w c iend omb $30 U , $ 3 4 po ? Send, imoW p. 9* $10 lo $ 30 ; 30 lo *0 ib. pg%,$30 t o S 4 5; 50 lo 80 I b . plgt, $50 t o $67 per head; h -o vy f eed in g d o g i$ 50 to $ 55 cwt. ; gilti 4 iowi J17 5 to $300;bo O' i $ 39 lo $4 1 twt ;h eavyK J W S , $ 39.50 to $41 cw1.; choice ilcer & h e i ta r t o ' v e t , $3 6 to $ 4 6 ,doce j-potling ilecti 4 heifer , $36 to S42 ; plain itti-M & heifeii $30 to$ 3 7 - including Ha l j t c m . Will liU o fo w lo'ei. 5 he. f c r i min ed 206 Ib*, ati40 25 6 hciters plan, 63 7 Ib c $32;5 while t a c t h e i f e r t 49 5 Ibi. ot$ 3 6 - 3 w hi e fo te Wcrs, 64 0 Ibi. a t $34; 1 M ac V i*-r, 69 0 tbv. o 438,6b!od w M e f o c - co w* . $ 2 7 2 . 5 0 . 13 blad hfifm, 7 40 Ibi oi J 3 3 . 7 5 ;4 wM v f ace itpm 82 5 Ib a * $37 . 40 , 10 i f i - e f t 1 0 9 0 Ibi. o t $ 3 8 3 0 . 1i,1 4 3 5 ibi.oi $ 3 6 . 2 5 , 10 her fer t 91 7 ibi . c l $ 35 8 0 : "J b i a c h Hem.10 65 Ibi. of S 3 6 8 0 , 1 W a c k len, 1055 Ibi. ot $ 3 7 , 1 0 , 5 Weri. 800Ibs. ot $3'. 10; 7 hei fen , 93 0 lln. a: $ 35 70 ; 9 Hott*in bul ls . '090 tbial $ 3 6 - 3 VM* bulli. 1 1 4 0 f c i ot $ 3 6 . 6 0 ; 1 b l o ck h e . f e f . t C M O ' b i . o t$ 36.8 0 ; 1 Meet hc i f e i , 1365 b ot $34 10 ; 2 bbtV wUr loj* Hi,1^)50 fc l 0! $36,O t her igiej en the iarr,r order, Bul ls $3 6 '0 $ 3 7 . go o dco w l $2 9 l o $33; cor-ne, cow*, $2 3 to $28. t - p ec l . r . g o oood w'r w.iaod wont fr fsn o aW r tned or W M T . l-ilcn fo' Sf l f l y liittrtg o t 5 5 5 W e dmorning on W M T . Call, we wi'l drive ou t to yo u r f o rm C ot fa ' tr f * * d t f ea ttk. Remember we hove tSt buy ers .E LI SHADA and SONS

Sde Bo'" *V^* X 3 ? 6 5 1 2 . Bi D. c V f y . Born v -g 43 ? 6 6 7 5El 4 6 2 - 3 6 4 4 C Colled C h u c k 463.4008

B r oken GlassA f t e r 1 deposited th e bro-,ke n gla.ss Into n f e e d s a ck onth is o c c as io n mid t a cked upc a r d b o a r d t o s h e l te r t h ebin s, hey quieted.

Wanted!S C R A P Scrap Iron Mixed Metals Copper BrassM.Feder & S o n s

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ATTtMlONITo our Cut 'o i fW f P t o H andFuk'tc. W * b r f vt t y on * iMlamly Jed't rrt Ignwttl ww of pu tcult tBit f fl ) , U4 vtlt if jtu in 90,1^ laMtd th i m . 7 ' ',fltttt Idut Vntf i DM at pant*.^p h o n t moi gv ta Nw m a n y n4 * h O ftottd 1* *4Rl IV lh\ < f t a . Wi t&bun m Ihi trill bttitx*!! In 11 ioit l S qrifilf buit l oNhrl.Ji .: O vr bvllt ar t ytrWon (U IVmlouUd b mllfl f t,W. ol AnmM n) h n*wUa t i i f op :

STICKLE BULLRENTAL S E R V I C EPh . 4 6 2 - 2 0 3 0 or 467-703!A n amoia, IowaDon 5 f D * I5 o n , OierW o r r r f i Wii lVmm, Mq r

!"A T UNITED L U M B E R . A N AMOSA^[ U S E D D I M E N S I O NI 3x12 75< lin. ft. 4x17 S0< lin.ft.1 3x l487Vj< lln. ft. 8x8 1 .07 lln. ft.1 2x10 344in.ft. 10x10 1.67 lln.ft.1 2x1240