The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-07-31

The Threatened Grasshopper Inv.sion
and Plague.
The telegram from Iowa announcing on
Monday the presence of large army of grass
hoppers on the wing will not be pleasant
news to the farmers. The American home of
these herbivorous tribes seems to lie in New
Mexico. Arizona, Colorado and Utah. on
whose arid. dusty soil they multiply in i'm
mense numbers. From these districts, it
would appear, the present multitudes hover
| ing over Iowa have been waited in the winds
Of Sumner. The July report of the Agricul-
tural Bureau states that the Colorado beetle
has advanced eastward to New York, and has
appeared in devastating force through the
West The invasions of these myriad
devourers OF the precious fruits of
the earth, like the noisy march of the locust
bands, have been at times attended with most
serious consequences to the land, such as
famine and pestilence. Though apparently
feeble foes to the Autumnal harvests, they are
not to be despised, and the entire agricultural
community should be ON their guard and be
prepared for their arrival especially as expert
ence shows that their advance may be checked
and their ranks thinned.
Grasshoppsrs do not belong to the same
family as the locusts, but they are very
nearly consanguineous, and when they begin
their devastations early in the season are ex-
ceedingly deadly to vegetation. They have
not the power to leap as high nor to sustain
so long fight as the locust and hence
it is, perhaps, that they frequent
and prey upon the grass and
herbaceous leaves rather than on the leaves of
the higher trees. They have no particular
habitation but are found in almost all coun-
tries; though in many districts they have
green color and elude observation, not being
distinguished from the foliage and grasses.
In the tropics so bright and highly colored are
their delicate wings that they become conspic-
uous. In the West Indies species of grass
hopper has been justly charged with the de-
struction of the sugar cane crops and it is
not impossible that in this country these
leaping prayers on vegetation may be-
come equally dangerous. The European
species are immensely prolific, laying. it is
said, more than two hundred eggs. Fortu-
.nately it generally happens that these swarm
ing armies of the insect world do not &C
quire their voracity and numbers till
near Midsummer or afterwards, when
the vegetation has become too hardy
and far advanced to be fatally injured. Their
numbers it is commended by skilful and ex-
perienced agriculturists may be vastly
diminished by little labor. When the trees
and shrubs are examined in Spring or Winter
the eggs are often found in large quantities,
and these can be easily removed and de-
stroyed. It is also asserted that by sweeping
over the foliage and grass with light net
early in the morning, while the insects ore yet
inactive and not as sprightly IS during the
heat of the day, thousands of them can be
caught, and, when scalded, afford fine and
palatable food to the poultry and pigs.
The clouds of grasshoppers reported on
Monday as lowering over the country
their way thither from the dry plains
and the hotter regions of the Southwest.
In 1854, and frequently before they had pene-
trated in Summer from the West around the
northern part Of this State and ravaged the
pastures. Although some of these insects
have been seen on Long Island this season, it
is not likely that the army, now in Iowa, can
move en- mdsse across the barrier of the Allie
ghany Mountains into the Middle States.
New CHINESE QUESTION The story of
the practices of Chinese society in San
Francisco which comes to us this morning
he ofto or
1t is quite likely there is good deal of truth
in the tale, sufficient truth at least to make
the allegations matter of inquiry by the
police; but that organized societies exist for
the traffic in women, as alleged, is scarcely
possible If they do exist it is one of the
most astounding discoveries ever made in a
civilized community. Hundreds of women
are said to have been sold in the Chinese quar-
ter, and yet none of them have ever been
heard Of except All Sing, who escaped, al
though the police were unable to find her pre-
viously. Either the allegations are gross ex-
aggerstions or the police of San Francisco is
utterly worthless and inefficient.
AN IMPORTANT DIscovERY.-Our city author
tiles having discovered the wards of this still
dirty city, in which overcrowded tenement
houses, with all their attending evils do most
abound, should proceed accordingly with the
work of cleansing and deodorizing all the pesti-
lential holes and corners thereof.
COLONEL r. w. HUGHES was nominated
for Governor Of Virginia by the Republican
Convention at Lynchburg yesterday. The re-
calcitrant democrats of last year, headed by
Wise, Lyons and Mosby, took no apparent in
terest in the Convention.
PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE.
General M. T. Mcmahon, Of Texas, is at the Union
Square Hotel.