Connecticut western news., 1874-07-24
THE GRASSHOPPERS' CAMPAIGN.
Their Descent Upon Minnesota. --One
 Hundred Bushels of GrasshOppers to inc Acre.

Hundred Bushels of GrasshOppers to the Acre.
 Now that the vast army of grasshop- pers has got fairly in motion, says St. Paul paper, some idea of it's immense range may be gathered from the fact that our dispatches report their simul- taneous appearance, flying from the southeast to the northwest, at Sheldon and East Orange, in Northwestern Iowa, where they lighted in immense clouds on the finely growing crops; at Mankato, over 200 miles east of those points, where they were flying north ward, and at Breckenridge, over 250 miles north of the first mentioned points.
 Contrary to expectation and to the impression derived from their first movements, they have not pursued a continuous flight northwestward or even northward, but large bodies of them have returned southward and south eastward, ill the inverse direction of their original movement. Either these were the same swarms returning whence they came, possibly because they found the country so desolated on their north ward track that they were forced to go back for supplies, or they were new swarms following what appears to be an cratic impulse only because their general migratory mo vement has seemed definitely northward, and because what has been known of their previous hab- it's had prepared us to expect an early flight back to their native deserts. Their winged columns seem, too, to have spread out laterally toward the east, so that the skirmish line on their eastern flank now takes in Blue Earth county. It is just possible that they may continue this flank movement toward the east. If the prodigious swarms of hungry locusts should once take it into their heads, after stripping g the thinly settled country west of Man kato, to move eastward over the rich, populous, and prosperous agricultural counties this side of the Blue Earth and Minnesota rivers, the destruction of crops would be immense, and the calamity tenfold what has resulted from their ravages in the newly and sparsely settled region to which they have heretofore been confined. If they should once set about it, there can be no doubt that they could without diff culty destroy in single week the en- tire growing grass crop of Minnesota. Their numbers are simply prodigious.
 MT. James G. Butterfeld estimates, from the numbers clinging to stalks of wheat, oats, etc., as compared with the number aHd s1ze of kernels of wheat, that in Watonwan county, where his farm is situated, there were one hun dred bushels of grasshoppers to the acre of all growing crops, and they were as thick over the whole titled area of the country westward to tho Iowa line as in Watonwan county. We know not what law or influence guides their migrations, but if the mysterious inn pulse which impels them should un- fortunately send them over the vast grain fields of Southern and Central Minnesota, they are quite capable of devouring the entire crop of 3O,OOO, 900 bushels of wheat, which are now esti- mated to be growing in this State, without overlooking their voracious stomachs. Happily there are no pres- ent indications that this terrible ca- lamity is in store for us. It is an en- couraging sign that our Breckenridge dispatch reports them flying northwest ward over that place. This is, no doubt, the advance column of the great re- treating army, and let us hope that all the laggard legions may follow this ex- ample and the excellent advice of the ate MT. Greeley, and "G o Vest"