The Western advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1872-1874, 1874-08-08
THE CHRISTOPHER RAIDS.

Prereous Experiences acith the Insects
Where thea come trone-Iheia method
Of laying tggs-No eggs loid to hetr1
Mert gears crop-S,enamary Of damage
inflicted.
| Correspondence Of the New York Tribune.]
WoRTH1NGToN, MIMI, July %.
Three times in the history of Mime
sofa have portions of the State been de-
vastated by locusts, and each time
their ravages have been confined tC
the newly settled and sparsely popula
ted counties. In 1866 an army Of grass
hoppers waited on the southwest wind
settled down upon the country around
st. Cloud, then OH the frontier, devour.
cd the crops, deposited their eggs, and
died. The next year these eggs hatch
ed out, and the young grasshoppers, at
ter eating up almost every green thing,
developed their wings and flew away
never to return. Again about the close
of the war the locusts came into the
southeastern counties of the State and
greatly injured the grain. Whether
they attacked the crops the second year
or not have not been able to learn,
but since 1865 the farmers i'll that sec
ton of Minnesota have never been
troubled with grasshoppers. Finally
in 1873, swarms of these pests, full.
grown, came once more from the al.
most boundless prairies lying to
the southwest, and over-run 4 few OF
the most recently settled counties in
this State and Iowa. A portion of the
crops was saved, but during their short
stay the locusts deposited their eggs by
the millions on the newly-broken prai
RE, and from these were Matched the
! choppers, which the people of these
southwestern counties have been fight.
; ing since the early Spring.
THE GRAssHOPPERs' HOME on TIE
PRAIRIE.
This having been Minnesota's expe.
rience with the grassholpers, and
have no doubt that of almost every
; prairie State of the West has been sim.
liar, the thinking people of this devas.
tated district take heart and believe
that they have seen the last of the
choppers. The theory, which seems
to me a very plausible one, is that the
home Of the locusts is on the bound.
let's Plains, which begin several hun
dred miles to the southwest of here.
When fully developed and able to use
their wings, they are carried by the
wind ''whither it listetll.'' Occasion.
ally when the wind prevails for Il long
time from the west or southwest, a
swarm OF them is brought over to the
frontier settlements. Guided 10y in.
stinct, they alight upon the fields where
the tender crops offer more tempting
food than the tough prairie grass. and
the extent Of the damage they do de.
ponds upon the size Of the army and
the length Of their stay. If they re-
main long enough to deposit their eggs,
then the devastation the second year
will probably he greater than that OF
the first. 1t will he noticed that none
but frontier counties in Minnesota have
ever yet suffered from grasshopper
raids. The locusts attack the first fields
they reach on the frontier, and having
satisfied their hunger there, have never
been known to injllre crops i'll the Older
settled counties in the State. Ten
years may pass before another swar n
will come within $40 miles of here. and
by that time these dozen counties III
the southwestern corner of Minleso.
tn and the northwestern corner OF
Iowa will no longer he upon the from.
tier.
The locusts, when they arrived here
! last year, were fully nlatureu and Just
ready to deposit their eggs. They re-
manned but II few days, but during that
time they destroyed, as nearly as I cal
| learn, ut least one-fOurth Of the crop III
the places invaded. On some farms
they left nothing others were only lit
tie damaged. But what was more i'm.
portrait to the settlers than the wheat
and corn they devoured was the fact
that they left their eggs all over the
land they devastated. The manner of
laying their eggs has been described to
me by Prof. lIumiston Of this place.
who has studied the habits of the shop.
pers'' with considerable care. The tail
of the female locust consists of Il hard
bony, con a-shaped substance, capable
of being thrust into the ground from
One-lalf all inch to an inch in depth.-
Just above this OH the body of the in.
sect, and attached to it is the egy-cell.
The glaSS}orper is able to push its con.
ical-shaped tail down into the ground
and to leave it there with the cell con.
tanning the eggs. The warm sun in
the Spring causes the eggs to hatch and
the field is covered with millions of
young grasshoppers, not as large as q
kernel Of wheat, just when the tender
shoots Of grain begin to show them.
selves above the ground.
those that are fully grown, for they re.
main right in the field for weeks. eating
up the crop as fast as it grows, allow:
ing the weeds to start, and so totally
destroying every veStige of the grain
| I
dozens Of fields Of wheat, corn, oats
and flax that have been SO thoroughly
wiped out by these little grasshoppers
that 1t IS difficult to learn from car ful
! inspection Of the field that anything
had been planted there. In other in,
! stances, where the crop got little
start before the locusts were hatchel
! they were unable to destroy the whole
OF it, bnt thinned it out 50 that oats
or wheat, or flax now covers one-hali
or one-third Of the ground.
| MODE OF DESTROYING THE INSECTS IN
TIE EGGS.
The people Of this Colony knew last
Fail that their land was full of these
locusts' eggs, and anticipated that un.
less they could he DESTROYED the crops
would be greatly injured again this
year. Prof lIumiston and others con-
ceived the ide;. Of blowing deep and
thus covering the eggs with layer Of
earth so thick rs to postpone, at least
the time Of Matching. Much of the Ian,
in which the prairie had just been bro
ken, this being only the second YEA,
that crop has been raised here. Some
Of the farmers ''back-set'' tile land il
the Fall-that is turned the sod back
again and covered it with a thin layel
Of earth. | Wis ted one Of Prof. Hum