The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1867-03-08
GRAssHoPPERs.


With a view Of giving ali the isforma.
ton We can on the great subject Of ye
grasshopper. individually. and collective
WS publish Che following which was
produced 10 the Kansas City Journal q
few days. ago. merely renAski3g ehat folks
can believe it OF not jast as tbsg please.
We are always having some Kind of
visitation 10 Kansas. Either wars,
drouths, famines, floods, Senatorial cleo.
lions, WORMS or grasshoppers, seem TO be
eur portion cbnti6hsily. Through all
these we have RAxsr less faith In the posr
isncy of = ''stiff upper lp''. and We cant
help thinking We are not to be entirely
''grssshQPpersd" out Of sistence this
yearsb e ~s Oh
SIR: AS there seems 10 be a great deal
of apprehension about the reaPPeaEence
ofthe gTasshoppers, this year, and hay
ing noticed several artielesli in the papers
lately, which no doubt gives reason for
these 9ears which am afEsid is calculated
10 deter some of the farming community
from sowing spring wheat, or doing
much of any farming, / fsel it duty. in
cumbenC on me to give7my experience to
the farming community. Having lived
in Northern California and Southern Ore
gon for several years, and having travelled
through all the principal valleys of NeVa.
da aud Utah, have learned the history
of grasshoppers. -
Ia the summer OF 1855, in Rogue R'v-
er Valley Southern Oregon, where Twas
then living, the grasshopPers ( the same
identical insect we had here last fall. call
them what you please, came in such
clouds that what we had here last fall was
no comparison. They destroyed every
green thing on the face of the earth; avail
| ley luxuriant with grass and all kindsEof
vegetation was left like s desert plain.
! The fruit trees were all destroyed > and
even the mislletoe on the oak did not es-
cape their rayages. The farming commu
nitv became so disheaTteRed that many
sold out for what they could get, and left
the valley in disgust. They were mex
peIienced in them, and consequently
reasoned the matter about as some do no. Y.
that the eggs would be all halched, and
consequently grasshoppers would BE-
more numerous the next year. But their
fears were entirely unfounded for tue next
year there was none to DO any damage.
Shasta Valley, Northern California, is
probably more troubled with grasshopper
raids than any other portion of the United
States, and they never come two years in
succession. The same is true of SCOTS,
Honey Lake, Long, Carson and other val
leys. Is ~ -
In 1857 they ate everything green in
Salt lake Valley, and came near starving
the Mormons out, since which time cd
Brigham keeps ore years supplies on
hand, knowing that they would not come
the second year. VEG
But it is useless for me to bring any
more proof to establish as well-known a
fact as that they will not reappear from
The eggs. To do any damage in a coun-
try Ike this is, is only when they come
from the dry. hot plains. as was the the
case here, that they do any damage.
Even the naturalistst, to whom some
specimens were sent from Lsavenworth,
asserted the same thing, with a very
learned peice OF advice, 10 destroy all the
eggs pOSSlOle' "oulu say 10 the IdIm
ing cou munity that they need not have
any fears of their appearance from the
eggs, to do any damage, no more than
though they never had been here. That
they need have no fears about the grair
sown after they left; and now that tn,
time for sowing spring wheat is at hand
l hope that any one will not be deferred
from so doing on account of the frivolou.
nonsense about grasshoppeFs. ,a
VIM ]. ALLEN
Kansas CITY, Feb. 90, 1867.