The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-06-24
THE CHOPPERS.
Ravages Of the Voracious Insects in Ne
braSka.


Ravages of the Voracious Insects in Ne
braSka.
A correspondent of the Chicago
Tribune, writing from Brownville, Ne
maha county, Nebraska, gives the fol
lowing vivid description of the CHASTITY
ruin wrought in that section by the
grasshoppers
Nemaha is one of the four counties SO
terribly damaged by grasshoppers this
year, and assure you that nothing that
has been written equals the frightful
reality of this plague. Had I not seen
it with my own eyes no one could have
made me believe that SO small an insect
could produce such ravages.
All along the river bottom the ground
is bare and barren as if swept by fire,
and on ascending the bluffs I found the
trees stripped of their leaves and the
points of the limbs white as a bone.
Not spear of grass was visible in
any of the yards, nor was flower
or shrub to be seen anywhere.
The grass is eaten into the very
earth, and it is brown and parched
as if dried by a fire. The people here
prided themselves on their beautifully
laid out and well-kept grounds, and a
few weeks ago the yards were green as
an emerald and the trees covered with
luxuriant foliage. Flowers bloomed
everywhere, and the houses nestled
among the green trees. All is now a
barren waste. Thousands on thousands
of grasshoppers crawled about the
streets, covered the fences, and lined the
sidewalks. Some Of them were SO small
and young they could not get out OF the
way, and were crushed to death beneath
the feet of the passers-by and under the
wheels of wagons and carriages. Others
were large and strong, and flew away
by hundreds only to be replaced
by new hundreds apparently descend
ing from the sky. The stencil from
dead grasshoppers at one time became
so great the people feared disease and
cleaned the town of their carcasses. They
crawled everywhere, lighted on my
clothes, and even in my face. Ii the
plaques of Egypt were any worse than
these, then the Egyptians ought yet to
be remembered with pity and sympathy
by all civilized nations. 1t is useless for
me to attempt to describe it to you-it
must be seen and endured to be under
stood, and I assure you never fully re-
allied until to-day what the grasshopper.
plague was. Countless millions have
been passing overhead all day high In
the air, but the people seem to care very
little whether they descend or not, as all
is taken, and I think the farmers would
rather delight to see the disappointment
of the millions who could come down
only to find their ravenous predecessors
had eaten up all there was for even a
grasshopper's supper.
To-day I rode out to Gov. Furna's
place about two miles from the city.
He had beautiful farm, well stocked,
hedged, and the best nursery In the
county of $50 acres in fruit, and not
tree escaped. Twenty acres of peach
orchard, on which few days ago hung
5000 bushels Of peaches, are completely
ruined. Not peach remains and the
trees are leafess as If in mid-winter.
Many of them are badly eaten and will
die. The apple-orchards are still worse,
the soft wood Of this years growth being
eaten, and the bark stripped from the
limbs. They look white as picked bones,
and many of them are already dying.
The nursery plants are eaten down to
the ground. The Governors loss is over
500, 900, and it will take him five or ten
years to replace his fine orchards
Millions of grasshoppers We're still
at work on the trees eating the bark
and soft wood. They rose In swarms
around us at every step OF the horses,