The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1854-08-26
agricultural.
From the Cumberland Miners Journal.
GRASSHOPPERS.


The following communication from onr fel
low citizen, Col. C. NJ. Thruston, detalin.
his experience with the grasshoppcrs this
season, will be read with interest. We have
b>en promised another communication on tn,
subject from a different quarter Of the coun
ty:
The ravagcs committed by the grasshop.
pets during the summer on all the growing
crops, have been so serious as to alarm many
ofthc farmers in this county, for the future.
The destruction by them at my farm has
been so great, that | make this communion
ton with the hope of drawing from others
who have suffered, their observations on the
habits and history of this little animal, in Or
der that We may, ifpossible, guard against its
injuries hereafter.
1t would not be possible for one who has
not witnessed the effects, to conceive the a
mount of injury which the grasshopper can
do in so short time as during its natural
life. This is the third year that have sullrr.
cd from them. The first year oftheir appear
ancc, they attracted my attention only by
their attacks on the corn-tlie second by their
inroads upon the corn, clover and garden
growth, which occasioncd severe loss; but
this year they have been so destructive that
unless some remedy DC found for them, my
farming must cease.
first observed them this year on the 9Th
of May, going into my timothy meadow. !
was startled by observing clouds of them
about one cigth of an inch long. From the
experience of the two past seasons, at once
anticipated very serious evil from their APP
rearancc at so carly season in such incrcas-
cd numbers In very few days discover
cd that the timothy crop would be destroyed.
Having eaten up all my crop, (about 100
acrcS) they attacked the wheat in June eav-
ing not one stalk in 80 acre field that they
did not strip of its leaves, cutting off one third
OF ;hc heads, besides injuring the grain in
most others.
fastened 10 cut my wheat, as soon as it
would bear it, when found them in the
oats, and b, fore they would bear cutting two
thirds of the crop was destroyed. As soon
as the oats were cut, they attacked two of
my fields of corn in such numbers that | a.
bandoncd them at once. There is not stalk
in either of them that is not eaten by them
so as to destroy the product.
Everything edible on the place is destroy
ed-pasturrS, potatoes, cabbages, carrots,
parsnips, pea vines. fruit trees, are stripped
of their leaves. The peach being the one that
has escaped,
This grasshopper is not the annual one
which is familiar to all. 1t is not so long,
but thicker 1t has not the same flight, but
skips, its longest jump not exceeding tenfeet.
At first, carly IN May, it appears about an
eighth Of all inch in length; growing rapidly
on the tender grass. it increases in its de-
structivc power until about the LIST of July,
when it obtains its full growth. Population
then takes place, and very soon after, the
eggs may be seen arranged on the back of the
female, distinguished from the male by its
lighter color and greater sizc) in rows, beng
retained there until they are prepared to be
deposited. This is done on the roots of grass
or old corn stalks, just under the surface, to
be Matched with the return offspring. About
the lst of August they begin to die, and by
the Goth all are gone.
They seem to I've omnivorous-not only de-
yonring everything of vegetable life, dut dead
animals, all other insects, and each other.
Now the remedy which propose to my
self, and which communicate for the bene-
fiji Of others, is to burn out my meadows in
the spring, when can find material enough
to burn, which from past experience know
will destroy the eggs, and then to pitch my
crops so as to plough as much land as posi-
Die. That is, to put in wheat, corn, oats.
barley and patatoes in contiguous fields. If
that fails, then to plough up all the grass on
my farm For the grasshopper can only
suhsst on tender grass for the first month of
its life. 1t does not appear in any other than
grass land.
| make these remrrks for the information
of others, hoping that those who have suffer
cd from the same cause may do likewise.
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To CuoosE A Coon Mr. Cow -S,loot from,