The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-08-10
From the Chicago Press, August 4 +.
A PROSPECT OF FAMINE AT SALT LAKE-POSSI-
BILE DISPERSION OF THE MORMONS.

From Chicago Press, Augusta.
PROSPECT OF FAMINE AT SALT LAKE-PossI-
BILE DISPERSION OF THE M0RM0NS.
The several which we have published of the
ravages gsshoppers and crckets in Salt Lake valley
point 10 the strong probability famine among the saints
during the coming winter Surprising those accounts to
be correct very large proportion of all kinds of crops
will cut off and enough of anything left to feed
the inhabitants
1t has been stated that San Barnardino Mormon set
Element eight hundred miles from Salt Lake City was the
nearest point at which supply could be obtained Bat
hope Of assistance from that quarter cannot now be enter
tanned We see by letter in the Mormon from San Bar
nardno under date Of the 28th of May that the wheat
crop there had been materially injured by rust and smut
and that there would probably be than sufficient
to supply the wants Of the seitlenpnt
This is the first in which the Mormons have
had their crops destroyed by these adevourng insects
The crops put into the ground in the Salt Lake valley by
advanced parties at the time of their forced exodus from
this State and upon which the main body in the
lied for subsistence during the following winter
sailed by the crckets-great gsggecyed crookegged,
bottle-bodied monscrseating the green fields to the
ground and leaving track behind them blank MS if
wasted by fire.
But just when the saints in despair these crickes
were discovered by the little white gulls which breed
among the islands of the lake ana they made such effect
nal war upon them that the crops saved This nat
ural inerposon the Mormons afterwards spoke of
special providence, by which, like the Jews of old they
were saved from starvation From that time until
they have not troubled seriously by grasshoppers
crickets and they congratulang themselves upon
unexampled abundance when the insect host and
swept their crops and hopes away together.
The observations Of Col Fremont in the Salt Lake val
ley in 1874 indicate that these crcke and grasshoppers
likely TO prove chronic plague to the Mormons He
states that from time immemoal the native Indians have
been accustomed TO regard them part of their subsst
They make cakes Of grasshoppers and crickeis.
They drive them into trenches with hot fire at the bot
TOM where their wings and legs burned off, and they
roasted after the fashion of the locuss Of Africa
These American insects thus bear the relation and
the purposes to the wild native tribes the
ocusts the desert of Asia and Africa in their respective
localities They bar the cultivation of the sol
they exist where there is soil for cultivation and where
animal life is limited to insects and reptiles, and they
all eaten from necessity The Utah grasshopper is the
African locust of smaller size and the Digger Indian is
but a lower type of the desert Arab.
In view of the above facts ii is impossible that these
may prove providental agency for the dispersion
Of the Mormons and possibly the breaking of the
rupt hierarchy which Heaven defiance and
RACES the highest moral and religious sentiments of Christ
endom II their crops badly cut off the published
would indicate they must either dspese before
winter, starve when winter comes.