New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-07-28
THE CHRISTOPHER RAIDS.


CRop-sUMylARY OF DAMAGE INFLICTED.
IrRox THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE IRIBUSEl
WoRruINGToN Mobiles County Minn July D.
Three times in the history of Minnesota have por-
,ions of the State been devastated by ocusts, and
each time their ravages have been confined to the
newly settled and sparsely populated counties In
1856 an army of graSShopperS waited on the SOUTH
west wind settled down upon the country around
ST. Clond then the frontier, devoured the crops
deposited their eggs and died. The next year those
eggs Matched out, and the young grasshoppers ai'er
eating up almost every green thing, developed thel
wings and flow away never to return. Again, ABOUT
the close of the war; the ocusts came into the SOUTH
eastern counties of the State and greatly injured tne
grain. Whether they attacked the crops the second
year or not have not been able to learn but since
1885, tbe farmers in that section of Minnesota nave
never been troubled with grasshoppers. FINALLY, IN
1873 swarms of these pests, full-grown, came once
more from the almost bOundesS praires lying 10 the
southwest and overrlln few of the most recently
settled counties in this State and Iowa. portion
of the crops was saved but during their short stay
the locusts deposited their eggs by the millions on
the newly-broken plairie, and from these were
Matched the hopperS," which the people OF these
southwestern counties have been fighting since the
early Spring.
THE GsAssHOPPERs' HOME on THE PRAIRIE.
This having been MinnesOtas experience with
rrasshOppers, and have no doubt that OF almost
every prairie State of the West has been similar,
the thinking people of this devastated district take
heart and believe that they have the last of the
E" hoppers" The theory, which seems to me very
plausible is that the home of the locusts is on
the bouuilcss Plains, which begin several hundred
miles 10 the southwest Of here. When fully de-
veloped and able to their wings, they are carried
By the wind "whither 1t lsteth." Occasionally
when the wind prevails for long time from the
west OF southwest, swarm of them is brought over
10 The frontier settlements. Guided by instinct,
they alig1t upon the fields where the tender crops
offer a more tempting food than the tough prairie
grass aud the extent of the damage they do depends
upon tile sz of the army and the length of their
stay. If they remain long enough to deposit their
eggs. then the devastation the second year will
probably be greater than that of the first. 1T VIII
be noticed that but frontier counties in Mime
sofa have ever yet suffered from grasshopper raids
The locus.s attack the first fields they reach on the
frontier aud having satisfied their hunger there
have never yet been known to inure the crOpsin the
older settled counties of the State. Ten years may
pass before another swarm will come within 500
miles OF here and by that time these dozen counties
in the southwestern corner of Minnesota and the
northwestern corner of Iowa will no longer be upon
the frontier
The locusts, when they arrived here last
post their eggs They remained but few days,
but during that time they destroyed, as nearly as
can learn. at least one-fourth of the crop in the
places invaded. On some farms they left nothing;
others were only little damaged. But what
more important to the settlers than the fields of
wheat and corn they have devoured was the fact
that they left their eggs all the land they de-
vastated. The of laying their eggs has been
described to me by Prof Humiston Of this place.
who has studied the habits of the hoppers' with
considerable care. The tail of the female locust
consists of hard, bony, cone-sbaped substance ca
pabe of being thrust into the ground from one-haf
an inch to an inch in depth. Just above this on the
body OF the insect and attached to it is the eggce
The grasshopper is able to push its cOnical-shaped
tail down into the ground and to leave it there with
the cell containing the eggs. The warm sun in the
Spring causes the eggs to hatch and the field is COW
cred with millions of young grassbOppers not as
large as a kernel of wheat, just when the tender
shoots of grain begin to show themselves above the
ground.
These probably, do more harm than those that are
fully grown for they remain right the field for
weeks eating up the crop as fast it grows, al
lowing the weeds TO start and totally destroying
every vestige of the grain. / have throughout
this section dozens of fields of wheat corn, oats and
flax that have been thoroughly wiped out by these
little grasshoppers that ii is difficult to learn from
careful inspection of the field that anything had
been planted there. In other instances, where the
crop got little start before the lOcust hached
they were unable to destroy the whole Of it. but
thnned it out so that the oats, or wheat, or flax
now covers only one-half onethird of the ground.
MODE OF DESTROYING THE INSECTS IN TILE EGG.
The people of this colony knew last Fall that their
land was full of these locusts and anticipated
that unless they could be destroyed the crops would
DE greatly injured again this year. Prof Humiston
and others conceived the idea of blowing deep and
thus covering the eggs with layer Of earth thick
as 70 postpone at least. the time of hatching Much
of the land in which these eggs deposited was
the prairie which had just been broken. this being
only the second year that a crop has been raised
here Some of the farmers " back-set" the land in
the Fall-that is turned the sod back again and
covered it with thin layer of earth. visited one
of Prof Humiston's wheat-felds to-day a part of
which had been treated in this way, while part
had been sown among the locusts eggs. The
contrast was wonderful. The part that had
been "back-set" will yield at least four times
as much wheat to the acre as the other. The young
prasshoppers that Matched on the field appeared
later and in much smaller numbers In fact, had
the matured locusts let it alone, it would have
welded more than an average crop of wheat. The
theory is that turning the eggs well under prevents
MANY of them from Matching and delays those that
do hatch so long that the crop has chance TO get
good start.
The matured grasshoppers also greatly damaged
The crops in this vicinity. The people are not
agreed whether these the same locuSs that were
oroduced here or strangers who invaded the country
think they were generally the former. They did
not always come from the same direction, and were