The New York herald., 1869-06-29
The Great Wcstern Psnsus al ssrass-


The Great Western Plague al Grass
hoppors.
Countless myrads Of grasshoppers, it is
reported, have appeared on the north and
cast of Great Salt Lake, and like destroying
army, or consuming fire. are moving down
towards the city of the Mormon Saints. We
| are Informed that the earth near Promontory
Point over an area of many square miles, is
black with the young and rapacious Insects;
that they are about three-quarters Of an inch
in length, blackish In color and more resem-
bling a cricket than grasshopper; but that
brown; that they grow rapidly and destroy all
green vegetation in their way that tor miles
the track of the Pacific Railroad is covered
with them, and that they are mashed in such
numbers on the rails as frequently to make
them too slippery for the locomotive to move
until sand is sprinkled over the creased iron
that they have also appeared at the Mormon
settlements, five hundred miles south of Great
Salt Lake, where they are eating up every
thing before them, and that at all points within
the range Of possible visit from these vora-
cious insects CONSERVATION prevails among
tue settlers.
These grasshoppers, then, are the special
plague and danger Of the Pacific slope of the
United States, and of the settlements from
east from the Rocky Mountains to the Missis-
sippi river. Last year certain districts of
Texas, near our Mexican boundary, were
ravaged by grasshoppers, and at the same
time they appeared in destructive clouds in
portions not only Of Minnesota, but beyond, in
the British settlements Of the Red river OF the
North, producing famine among those people.
From all that we can learn, however, the
grasshoppers east Of the Rocky Mountains are
of wholly different species and much smaller
in size than those of the Great Basin, and all
that vast isolated Asiatic section of this Cont.
nent lying between the Rocky Mountains, east,
and the great Sierra Nevada chain, which
looks down upon California, west This
section includes the Territories of Utah and
Idaho, large portion of the State of Oregon,
all of the State of Nevada and a large section
of the Territory of New Mexico. The great
grasshopper, SO called, of this region, if not
u,
very near akin to him. The habits of each are
the same, and the American insect is hardly
excelled in his voracity by his Arabian con-
geue~.
As to the reproduction Of this Western
plague OF grasshoppers, an equivalent term
for locust in the Bible, we learn that they
come out of the ground in the spring, hardly
visible at first, grow rapidly in the sun, aud
begin to eat their way through the country as
soon as they begin to crawl; that they marc..
on in straight course, devOurng as they go,
until they have attained their full growth,
when, rising In the air, like cloud OF
smoke on the horizon, they fly off to
great distance, and then, settling down upon
some inviting locality, they deposit their eggs
on the ground, and, again taking wing, dis
appear, and doubtless soon die But they have
sown the seed for new crop. The eggs they |
have cast upon the ground lie there unharmed |
by the SHOWS aud frosts of the winter, to be
hatched with the returning warmth and vege-
tation Of spring. Hence district where these |
insects have appeared this year may escape
next year; but from year to year no district |
within their range Of operations is secure.
The MormOns OF Utah have several times |
narrowly escaped famine from these grass
hoppers. Once, at Salt Lake City, in the be- |
ginning of their settlement, the Saints were
saved from these grasshoppers by focks of |
little gulls from the lake, the birds coming over
from the lake to feed upon the insects from |
day TO day till they were consumed. The
Saints have this incident upon record as q
miraculous preservation, like that of the chill |
drcn Of Israel in the wilderness when the |
quais were sent for their sustensnce. As the |
areas Of cultivation are extended over these
Western States and Territories these swarms |
Of grasshoppers will be apt 10 increase. But
for the annual autnmnal fires on the great |
plains east Of the Rocky Mountains these de- |
structive insects would probably ere this have
extended their visitations to the country this |
side the Mississippi AS il is, they may yet |
give the casting vote upon the question Of the |
removal Of the Mornons with their institution
Of polygamy, from Utah.
FREE Discussion IN FRANCE Henri Roche |
fort, Of In Lonterne, and two editors of the |
Paris Sstcte and the editors of the Opinion |
Notionote have been condemned TO imprison- |
ment and fines, ranging from three years to
nns nd Al