The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-08-14
FORGY TH0lsA
MI
~ S4UAKE
D3 lIES0IAEED
By the Grasshoppers in Kansas.
C.rrezlarda u tie Pittsburgh Gazette.
DtIlwoop, NEAE- Perry KANSAS,

C.4rrez..erdalle of tie Pittsburgh Gazette.
DtKwoop, NEAR PERRY KANSAS, f.
August Z, I-7i.b
In q recent letter / spoke Of severe
and long continued drought, which still
coutinues: of the ravagez Of the chinch
bug; and last and worst ofa.I, the grass
hepperz in number= sufficient to darken
the SKY while they are GA the wing, and
to devour every green thing in few
hours. The drought and dry =corching
breezes had left but little in the fields
fer The gra-shoppers 10 destroy except
the blades of corn, bat even the loss Of
these. under the circumstances; is sd
caIamity: for even this fodder, especial
" in a season like this. is the main de
pendence for carrying s;oci, through the
winter.
It Is great calamity, 'and only the
greater because 50 widespread. When
a city burns, as Chicago did, o. is vi-i-
ted BY disastrous food, as yours was,
the attention Of the world Is attracted;
but when God sends what He Himself
calls His great army and sweeps away
the food of men and beast over many
thousands of square miles, it Is atill more
calamitouz and really more terrific. B,it
because the destruction is done 80 quiet
Il, 50 silently, it fails to auract the same
attention, and does not sfar;ie the world.
The grasshoPpers-or rather this spe-
/ cies Of loeusts-calne in both from Ne
bra~ka and Colorado. from thenorih and
/ from the west, and have already over
spread and deeolated more than forty
/ thousand square miles within he b3r-
ders of this State, and are still moving
eastward at the average rate Of tventy
miles per day. Il may be that the over
flowing scourge will not stop until the
remainder of-Kansaz, Missouri and Iowa
shall be swept They are now within
twenty or Thirty miles Of this place.
| These grasshopper- are hardly as large
a the local gra~Shoppors Of Pennsyl-
vania, and in form, color and movement
are scarcely diztinguiShable. The differ
ence is in their migratory habits ard
their power Of flight. In obedience 70
some impulse. whether of Leaders or Of
: me Instinct common TO all, we can not
tell, they mount up simultaneously in
NAM bers 50 vas5 that they partially Oh
scnre the sky and the solar rays, ard
.n"vs. on. Some times they move over
rye districts without touching the earth,
aut @ncn once down, and they find some
thing TO dovolr, they move on by short
flights, leaving little or nothing oF which
they can make feed in their course
This appears 10 lie the care now. have
i seen them SO spsrsely distributed thar
they did but little mischief, eating some
plants and leaving others. Bnt when
they are very numerous, as they are now,
they strip corn fields and forests alike
/. When they devour ali hey can find in
one place, they move on 10 another.
Thi. yistation Is far more disastrous
: because Of the severe and long continued
! drought. which had left les than o. G.
; fourth the food for saasans. ! suppose
indeed that they were starved out
: their native feeding groui ds, and foue e
to come and forage upon the luxuriant
: corn fields of this State; fer before tn.
dry weather set in there never vas
I larger or more thrifty stand of corn thar
p we had in Kansas The fielda look ex
. ceeingiy well yet, but there are yer,
: few ears The chinch bug, although re
? ry destruction in some places, did les
E damage than in former years. They liv
: BY sucking the sap Of serials; but the nb
5 sence Of rain and the hot b:eezcs d ie,
5 mp their sspply, and I t;,in!. taey az
i pretty nearly exterminated. They hav
r been a great pest for some years, and i
: this drought shall have the effect Of ex
c terminating them. II will he come cen
E pensation.
e The aggregate io-s arising irca; ,Ei
5 donble or triple visitation. in kans1
= alone, will amount 10 millions. Bot
: the people upon whom II falls were abl
r to bear it the greatness Of the pecuniar
Il loss would be comparatively a sma
: matter. The appalling feature of tht
il calamity Is that nearly all the people {
IS a district as large aa the State Cf Obi
G are left almost destitute of food both fo
: them elves and their animals, and hay
G no means to supply themselves from
u more fortunate districts. 4 great MAORI
g ty Of them are poor-many Of them s
poor that they oagh; never TO have com
out here even to get farms under til
u Homestead Law. All their agriculture
: labor Is Il total loss; ard thousands {
II meu re ID; and eager TO work are idl
y day after day, beclu~e no one is able t
give the Il employment. They have moth
d ng Ii Oh here, and they are una 81
10 cet away.
d may az we'll say it now as hereafte
that there are many thousands of peopl
n in Kansas who MUST either starvo o
! dr.w largely upon the benevolence G
k their more favored country men. Th
: h arisen through no fault Of theirs, n
lack Of industry on their part. In Jan
4 our people were in fine spirits, for tn
pitSI IJGtt " siN very Ss'lt)ii 4 tiS Siitil GRO \
1t Of the previoaz year were then likely
't be followed by great abundance. b
e now the crops are still shorter, and tn
g crowning scanrgo Of grasshoppcrs
IS sweeping even what there is away, an
t our pc >ple are standing at this monler
d face 10 face with great dearlh, and III
q sooner measures are taken to alleviat
he inevitable distress the better. TT
le drought still continues, but rain no
would do no good to the corn crop, a
IN though it might be ofsoma benefit to til
re potatoes.
u This being almost entirely an agrieu
p tural State, our cities are of course Ian
II gushing, and will be unable to exten
n much relief to the distressed rural poi
> ulatlon.
Of
BURSTING OF WATER PIPEs.-Tl
following plan for the prevention of IL
bursting of water pipes during frost
F; weather has been invented in Englant