Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-10-08

The following description of these
pests and their depredations is given by
Rev. Richard Cordley, of Lawrence,
Kan, in the Congregsti0adlist:
The grasshopper region" extends
from the Indian Territory on the south
to Minnesota on the north, and from the
arid plains of the Rocky Mountains on
the west, whence they originate, to the
Mississippi on the east. 1t is not
often, however, that they reach the
latter boundaries, as frost generally
overtakes them on the way. This year,
however, they are earlier than usual, and
they reach the rivers before frost comes
So their ravages this year will extend,
with an occasional break and omission,
over region nearly 1000 miles square.
Their number is simply appalling.
The national debt and the wonders of
geometrical progression are left COM
pletely in the shade. Take your little
pencil while give you the materials of
a problem. An army of them is passing
over my house as l am writing, going
eastward. Looing up, the air is filled
with them as high as you can see. The
lower strata looks like snow-flakes in the
air. Higher up they look like silver dust
sprinkled on the sky. This immense
multitude has been moving rapidly all
day. On Saturday, two days ago,
another army, equally vast, passed over
the city southwark, and were seven
hours going over. Now, remember that
the army extends, with few breaks in
the line, nearly 1000 miles, and, while
your pencil and figures may fail, you can
form some conception of the reality.
Their destructiveness Is as wonderful
nc hal ,nl,t Lnx
come down like snow-storm, covering
the ground. AS soon as they strike they
begin to eat, and they keep eating till
food grows scarce, and then they move
on. In some places their destructiveness
is more complete than in others, as their
stay varies from three days to three
weeks. They have excellent appetites
and a wide range of diet. Onions, tobac-
co, peppers, cabbages, and other strong
and pungent articles are their favorites;
but they can accommodate themselves
to circumstances, and when these luXu-
ries fail can thrive very well on such
substantials as corn or grass, or leaves
of fruit or forest trees; and even as a
last resort they devour the twigs and
| bark of the trees, and the stalks of the
corn, as the bareback of the campaign.
The rapidity Of their work is almost in
credible. The great cornfields of these
praries seem to melt before them almost
| while you are looking at them; orchards
and forests exhibit the badness of win
| ter, and the whole country looks as
though fire had passed over it. A farm
| er told me he had 100 acres of corn in
| one field, so rank you could not see
| through it. The grasshoppers struck it
about noon, and in a few hours only bare
stalks were standing. 1T just melted
away before my eyes," he said. And
what they have done for him they have
| done for all. The bottom lands of the
| Kaw (kansas) River, which for 100 miles
west of here are almost one unbroken
corn field, now show nothing but corn
stalks. Where the corn is mature they
leave the ear and stalk. But where it is
green they sweep the whole away. In
this region much of the corn was about
ripe, and is safe. One hundred miles
west of US the grasshoppers came earlier
and there is absolutely no harvest.
drove several miles through fields on
| the Kaw bottom while the grasshoppers
were working. The sound of their eating
was as If drove of cattle were in the
| field. In my own yard you could hear
| them distinctly eating among the trees.
| AT any hour OF the night you could go TO
| the door and hear the work going on. 1t
| took but few days to strip the trees Of
| their leaves the yards of their grass; the
| gardens of their plants, and the fields of
| their harvests. When food becomes
scarce they all rise together as if by
| word of command, and pass on to
greener fields" if not TO "milder skies"
| 1t is the best appointed army ever
known. They move and camp and work
| in concert, as if directed by some com
mon voice They forage In the country
as they move. II one of them gets hurt
or killed, his companions at once eat him
up. So they need neither baggage
wagon nor stores, ambulance nor sur
geon. The insect differs from the
common grasshopper. In addition
TO its jump apparatus 1t is fur
nished with four white wings, which
do not simply help IL to hop, but on
which it flies indefinite distances-milcs
perhaps hundreds of miles. 1t is no
doubt nearly identical with the locust Of
Scripture.
The humors of the campaign are not
few. At Topeka they said they late
the peaches from the trees and then
threw the stones at the people as they
passed" In Missouri they say "they
stopped train one morning, seized the
daily papers, and there learning that a
section had been missed by them turned
back and finished the job" Stopping the
train is ne joke. They have frequently
piled themselves on the track so as to
cause the driving wheels to stick on their
broken bodies. The ladies have special
aversion to them, as they cannot walk
out without capturing from fifty to two
hundred and bringing them home. In
church you can safely assume that every
lady has few score hidden in the folds
of her robes. A sudden twitching of
the features, clutching of the fingers,
or faint scream will indicate that one
of these captives has "struck for lib
erty."