Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-07-24
The Insect War on the Crops.

THE recent reports of vast swarms of
grasshoppers in the gram growing States
of the Northwest are of alarming inter
est, and the inquiry comes, Is there no
remedy? The eminent American astron-
omer, b. A. Gould, writing from his OBJ
servatory at Cordoea, in the Argentine
Confederation, last fall reported enor-
nous numbers of gfasshoppers then fre-
quenting that part of South America.
One train of them he computed to be
five miles in width, literally darkening
the sun, and borre northward in dense
band not less than 1000 feet thick, They
were evidently omitted in the strong
trade-wind blowing along the Andean
Sierras, and appeared to be entirely at
the mercy of the wind. Is it possible
that, as the winter of the southern hem
isphere closed, these rowing clouds of
grain destroying insects have migrated,
with spring, across the equator and en-
tered the Western States? The question,
however preposterous it may at first
sound, is not so easy to dispose of. What
ever answer we may give the observa-
tiOns of DIR. Gould show, at any rate, a
congeniality of the soil and climate
occupied by these dangerous insects in
both hemisph0res. The Argentine
Republic, lying under the shadow of the
Andes, with its undulating, treeless
pampas, swept by the bowling pamperOs
or westerly mountain winds, corresponds
precisely with the geographical prairie
belt in the United States swept by the
Rocky Mountain winds and subjected to
great thermometric extremes. This
striking fact may prove suggestive of
the conditions under which these insect
armies breed and, if the hint is pursued
by the sagacious and scientific agricul-
turist, may lead to some method of pre-
dieting or preventing their ruinOus in
vasions.
The habits and haunts of such insects
are of national Importance to determine
and to make known, for they often
threaten national famine. The Colorado
beetle, whose true domicile is the Rocky
Mountains, where it feeds on species
of wild potato, had in 1859 advanced
eastward only as far as Omaha. Leaving
behind it fiourishing colonies, it
entered Iowa in 1861, and crossed the
Mississippi into Illinois in 1865, reaching
Canada and New England by slow
marches in 1870. 1t is said that the
passage across the Atlantic is a mere
question of time, if it has not already
been effected. If it enters Europe and
finds there congenial home the potato
crop and garden crops generally must
suffer immense depredations. But we
refer to the subject of these insect raw
ages on the grain and garden crops TO
show the necessity for some corrective.
1t is incredible that well-directed and
patient investigation of agricultural
scientists can supply no remedial agent,
or devise no method of destroying the
young while in the ground. The inva-
sion of such swarms of grasshoppers as
DIR. Gould leisurely observed for two
days over the arid plains of La Plata il
may be beyond human power to deal
with. But not so the ordinary bands
which die in the soil in the Western
winter and germinate with the warmth of
spring. Cannot some relief measure be
provided by the original Investigators of
agricultural science?-N. Y. HeIud