Connecticut western news., 1874-08-21
Life and Death of the GrasshOpper

Last year was one when they made 8 clean sweep, but it did not occur to us to make fuss about it, nor to ask as- sistance from anybody. So far as I un- derstand it, a grasshopper year re- quires part of the previous year for preparation. That is, the full-grown bird comes in September or October, about the time corn is ripe-comes in vast bodies, alights in gardens and green pastures, and forthwith zoos to eating. The progress of destruction is at first slow the leaves of turnips and the tops of onions and beets are first devoured then they begin to nibble at the bulbs, and eating away every day, and seeming to grow more hungry, they eat down into the ground, and l have had the inside of turnips weighing three or four pounds entirely eaten out, leav- ing only the shell. The outside leaves of cabbages are eaten first; then they burrow into the head, and finally the whole is consumed. The best thing for the hohest farmer to do is to harvest his crops whether mature or not, or to strip his fields bare, for that is their destiny. The grasshopper has no in- tention, however, of leaving. He came to stay and to conquer, taking all sum- mer and fall. One would suppose that after hard frost he would wither and die, but it has no effect on him, or he crawls under some slight shelter and when the sun comes out bright and warm he is as lively as ever. When the snow of November comes, and the freezing nights appear, he is far from being conquered, and on bright days l. I,J,k of last he withers away, probably more from his old age than from any adverse climatic condition. Meanwhile he, or more likely she, has been laying the foundation of other and more populous nations by laying eggs, which almost always is in light sandy soil and on the southern side of furrows or sandy slopes of bluffs on the plains, though generally the visitation is to cultivated fields, the broad, desolate plains being neglected.
 The eggs so laid are never injured by frost, and they may be said to be inde' structible. But it is not difficult to turn them under with the blow so deer that the suns heat will not reach them, when they fail to hatch or if part oi them do, it will be so late in the season that no harm will be done. This is g good remedy, and it IS generally prac. ticed by the best farmers, so that the young grasshopper will not trouble that field, since before he gets large enough to fly he cannot travel far, and when he can fly he is so proud of his wings that he leaves the county on them. It is impracticable, however, to blow all the ground where eggs are de
 posted, and impossible to destroy the young brood, which comes out witE warm weather in spring. When he is. sues from his shell all the dust of the ground seems to be in crawling ol moving state. A close observation re veals the terrible truth that the grass
 hopper is born and will soon be ready for business. As he grows he eats, ot course, and whatever he can seize ii eaten, so that new spring grain, and al
 most every kind of garden vegetables
 tender, thrifty, and full of promise, fal
 before him. A little may be saved by sweeping him away, though thousandl are likely to crowd in, and where watel is abundant he is swept into the ditchet and Aoated down to the next neighbor One might think he could be drowned
 but not so he takes to water like . duck. Winrows of straw are excellent for when few thousand millions O
 them are driven into it and match ap piled, that is the end of so many, ant whole fields of grain have been saved il this way, and at no great expense either The majority of farmers, however give up; there is too much bother il fighting them, and they are permitted to eat and grow and get wings. .-t