The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1874-10-23


appetites and q wide range OF d1et.
Onions, tobacco, peppers, cabbages ana
other strong and pungent articles are
their favorites, but they can accommo-
date themselves to circumstances, ana
when these Iuxurles fail, can thrive very
well on such substantials as corn ana
grass, or leaves of fruit or forest trees
and even as q last resource they devouf
the twigs and bark of the trees and the
stalks of the corn, as the hard-tack of
the campaign. The rapidlty OF their
work is almost Incredible. The great
corn fields of these pralrleS seem TO
melt before them almost while you are
looking at them /: orchards and forests
exhibit the badness of winter, and the
whole country looks as though ire
had passed over it. A farmer 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. cit just melted away before
my eyes," he said. And what they have
done for him they have done for all.
The bottom of the lands of the Kaw
(Kansas) river, which for 100 miles west
of here are almost one anbroken corn
field, show nothing but bare 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 come earlier,
and there is absolutely no harvest.
drove several miles through fields
on the Kaw bottom where the grass
hoppers we're 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. It 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 har-
vests. When food becomes scarce they
all rise together as if by word of com
mand, and pass on to '' greener fields,
| if not to sc milder Skies" It is the best
appointed army ever known. They
move and camp and work in concert as
| If directed by some common voice.
They forage on the country as
they move. If 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 itself differs from the COM
mon grasshopper. In addition to it's
| HI 10 4u1lISACo Will
| four white wings, which do not simply
help it to hop, but on which it flies in
definite distances -miles-perhaps hun
dreds of miles. It is no doubt nearly
identical with the locust bug of Scrip
ture. The second chapter of Joel con-
tains a very fine poetical description
of an invasion of locusts. It might be
all literally applied to these Western
plains to-day. They come like '' a strong
people in battle array with noise
like "chariots on the top of the noun
tains-or fire that devoureth the stub
BILE. They march every one on his
own way and do not break their ranks. !"
"They run up upon the wall, climb
upon the houses, and enter ia at the
windows" Before them the people are
"pained, and all faces gether black
ness" The land is as a garden of
Eden before them behind them des-
olate wilderness. Man is helpless be-
fore them, as before the elements of
God. There is no resisting, or destroy
ing, or turning them. They come like
fire or flood, sweeping all before them.
There seems to be no limit to their
numbers or destructiveness. No mat
ter how rich country may be, they can
lay it waste while we are looking at
them.
Whence do they come, and whittier
do they go? They are not natives of
this country, neither do they perpetu-
ate their race here. In the fall they
all fill the soil with their eggs, and in
the spring the young grasshoppers
come forth in numbers so vast that it
almost seems as if the dust itself had
been vitalized. But they proceed at
once southeast
SIN the paths their fathers trod,"
and are never heard of again. Each in
vasion is a new stock-fresh from the
plains among the Rocky Mountains.
There they are born and brought up
but like Stephen A. Douglas with Yer
, mont, find it g a good place to enigrate
from. Their incurslons are more usually
. limited than this year. One year it is Min
nesota, another Arizona, another Kan
sas. But this year it seems to ss thunder
all around the sky"
Bnt will they not prove fatal obiec
tion to that region of country, and par
alyze its prosperity? Many of our peo.
pie, smarting under their terrible losses
are now almost ready to say so. We
have our " Job Goodwins here, "whc
snuff calamity afar off," as the horses
of Scripture do the battle. I have ever
heard the prediction that this country
will be found uninhabitable in conse
quence.
A single glance will show the absurd.
ity of any such conclusion. ALI coun
= tries have their misunderstanding il
proportion to their advantages. These
grasshoppers are one of the drawback
) to this wonderfully rich soil. But it is
) SO rich that if the whole crop were con
sumed every second year it would still
support a dense population. Bnt the
grasshoppers have only come three
: times in twenty years, and twice they
came so late as to do little damage
. This year the ravages are fearful, anc
= the losses will count up among the mill
) ions. The western part of the State
, which is new and dependent on the
! corn crop, is completely destitute. II
the older sections, however, fine wheat
, crop has been secured, and half the
: corn was too nearly mature to be de
! stroyed. So, doubtless, that countr.
will survive and prosper notwithstand
: ing.
1 The humors of the campaign are no
q few. At Topeka they said they sea
the peaches from the trees and the1
+ threw the stones at the people as the.
? passed." In Wisconsin they say "the,
: stopped train one morning, seized tn
\ daily papers, and there learning that
2 section had been missed by them, turne