Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-27
THE INSECT WAR ON THE WEST.
ERN CROPS.
New York Hera

The recent reports Of vast svarms of
grasshoppers IN the grain growing
States Of theNorthwest are of alarming
interest, and The inquiry comes, Is
there no remedy? The eminent Amer
lean astronomer, DR.. B. A. Gould,
writing from his observatory at Cor
dova in the Argentine Confederation
last fall, reported enormous numbers Of
grasshOppers then frequenting that
part of South America. One train of
them he computed to be FIVE
miles in width, literally darken-
ing the sun, and borne nOrthward
in a dense band not less than two
thousand feet thick. They were evil
IDENTIFY drifted 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 hemisphere
closed, these rowing clouds of grain
destroying insects have migrated, with
spring, across the equator and entered
the Western States? The question,
however preposterous it may at first
sound, is not so easy to dispose of.
Whatever answer we may give, the OBJ
servations of DR.. Gould show, at any
rate, congeniality of the soil and eli
mate occupied by these dangerous in
sects in both hemispheres. TheArgentine
Republic, lying under the shallow of
the Andes, with its undulating, treeless
pampas, swept by the bowling pampe-
ros or westerly mountain winds, cor
responds precisely with the geographi-
cal 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 un-
der which these insect armies breed,
and, if the hint is pursued by the sa-
gaeious and scientific agriculturist,
may lead to some method of predict
ing or preventing their ruinous inva-
sions.
The habits and haunts Of such in
sects are Of national Importance to de-
termine and make known, for they of
ten threaten national famine. The
Colorado beetle, whose true domicile is
the Rocky Mountains, where it feeds
on a 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
erossei the Mississippi into Illinois in
1865, reaching Canada and New Eng
land by slow marches in 1870. 1t
is said that It's passage across
the Atlantic is a mere question of time,
if it has not already been effected. If
it enters Europe and finds there a con
genial home the potato crop and gar
den crops generally must suffer i'm
mense depredations. But we refer to
the subject of these insect ravages on
the grain and garden crops to show the
necessity for some corrective. 1t is in
credible that well directed and
patient investigation of agricultu-
raj scientists can supply no remedial
agent, or devise no method of de-
stroying the youngwhile IN the ground.
The invasion of such swarms of grass
hoppers as DIR. Gould leisuIely OBJ
served for two days over the arid plains
of La Plata it 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 proyid I'd by the orig
inal Investigators Of agricultural sci
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