The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-05-05

The Utah Plague Of Locusts-An Important
Question to the "Saintso and the Far
West.
For they came up with their cattle and their
Tor both they ana their camels were without num-
Der, and they entered into the land to destroy It,
Thy crowned are as the locusts and thy captains
as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the
hedges In the cold day. but when the sun arisetn
they fee away and their place is not known where
they aro-tNahum ILL.,, H.
A HERALD correspondent at Great Salt Lake
City calls our attention again to the ravages Of
the grasshoppers (Which is only another name
for the locusD in Utah. He tells us that
for five years this terrible insect has destroyed
almost the entire crops in many portions Of
the Territory; that they are again showing
their presence in countless millions that when
this fearful scourge first made its appearance
In the fields of the Mormons the prophet Brig
ham Young designated the grasshoppers as
''the army of the Lord, sent among the saints
to teach them what He could do in destroying
the Gentiles from off the face of the Earth, and
that hundreds Of sermons Of this superstitious
lous disciples. He had no idea
then that their visits were to be
continued from year to year among his peo-
pie, but prophesied that they would wing
their way eastward and eat up every green
thing, ''till the Gentiles would come bending
and supplicating to eat bread from the Nor
MONS" The saints, filed with this idea,
would go into their gardens and say to the in
sects, ''The Lord has sent you take your
fill and travel on when you are ready" But
now, in this the fifth year of this plague,
many Of the farmers are fearful of utter ruin.
In many places no land is put under cultiva-
ton, for the people have not the seed to sew,
and they have about as little faith as they
have seed. In short, it is said that but for
the rich discoveries of silver, lead and other
but for the labor they furnish and the hopes
they inspire, Utah this year would have lost
thousands of her most Industrious people.
Now this is gloomy picture; and there is
more in it than will appear to the general
reader in the simple facts presented. Some
years ago we gave an article or two on this
interesting subject, which had wide extra
circulation through our exchanges but as the
facts, views and suggestions then presented
have doubtless passed away from the public
mind, from the pressure of the tremendous
intervening events in both hemispheres, we
seize upon this fitting occasion again to con-
slider this Utah plague of grasshoppers as a
question of great Importance in reference to
the Mormons and Mormon polygamy, and
also in regard to the settlement and develop
ment of our Pacific States and Territories, and
especially of that vast intermediate region be-
tween the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra
Nevada range known as Fremont's Great
Basin. - Z, a; {. e. -. - r..
We shall have, first, to 60 into some geo
graphical details in order to compass our de-
signs upon these Utah grasshoppers. The
grand central portion Of the North American
Continent occupied by the United States it will
serve our present purpose to divide into two
distinct geographical sections-the European
section, extending from the Atlantic coast to
the great plains beyond the Mississippi, and
the Asiatic section, extending from those
plains to the Pacific Ocean. In the one sec
ton we have the varied seasons rains,
Astounding rivers lakes, forests, mountains,
hills, plains, valleys, &C., of Europe, and the
same general characteristics in vegetable,
animal and insect life. The other section, in
its plains and deserts, in its general naked
ness and sterility, in its bold, rocky and
desolate mountains, in it's deep river chasms,
and particularly in its prevailing aridity, and
in that interior system of drainage into lakes,
from which the surplus waters discharged
into them are evaporated by the sun, bears
most striking general resemblance to that
grand historical section of Asia, sthe cradle
of the human race" extending from Toorkis-
tan and Persia to the Mediterranean and Black
Seas.
The delightful and productive coast section
of Palestine or Syria has its counterpart in
the beautiful and fertile coast section of Cali
forna; and the sea or fresh water lake of
GaliIee, the river Jordan and the Dead Sea,
into which it is discharged, are wonderfully
reproduced in the fresh water Utah Lake,
the river Jordan and the Great Salt Lake, into
which it is emptied. And as the city of Zion,
of the former day saints, is aanked by noun
tains, rocks, chasms and deserts, 80 is the
New Jerusalem Of our Latter Day Saints.
But what has all this to do with these Utah
grasshoppers? Mark the connection. Under
the laws of the Great Creator we find that in
those sections Of both hemispheres, which, in
their climate and in their geographical
and geological features, resemble each other;
there is also, more or less, resemblance to
each other in their vegetable and animal life,
including insects. The camel, from experiment,
introduced into Nevada, is as much at home
there as in the desert near Damascus, and the
destructive transformer of Nevada Arizona