Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-05-23
GRASSHOPPERS ON THE FLY.
Wall Street Excited Over Con-
fiicting Dispatches.

Stocks Dropping Down as the Grass
hOPPers Hop On-The Invaders
Moving Eastward.
New York sun, May %.
The grasshOppers are coming. Wall
street was excited yesterday afternoon
by the Ominous kilograms from Iowa.
The country east Of Nebraska, un-
touched by grasshoppers last year, is
being eaten up. The news that the
! grasshOppers were eating the corn and
wheat in Iowa caused a depression IN
| the stock Of the Rock Island, Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy, and Chicago
and Northwestern Railroads. These
roads run through Iowa and tap the
Union Pacific at Omaha.
The first telegram received comes
from Council Bluffs, on the boundary
line between Iowa and Nebraska. 1t
reads thus:
To Clinton B. Fish, Treasurer Missouri
Pacific Railroad: COUNCIL BLUFFS,
Iowa, May IS, 1875.-The grasshop-
pers are passing over from Nebraska
Pinto Iowa. They are hatching-mil-
lions of them, but only remain In Ne
braska till large enough to fly; then
they start for Iowa. They are eating
every live thing along the Rock Island
Railroad, the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy, and the Northwestern
Railroad. G. D. NORMAN.
WHAT AN EYEWITNESS SAW.
Ell Perkins, who has Just return
ed from Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa,
was questioned by our reporter In re-
gard to the grasshOpper. In reply to
the question whether much damage was
apprehended this season from their
ravages, Mr.. Perkins said:
yes, sir, grave apprehensiOns are
felG. In Parsons, Kansas, Just above
the Indian Nation, the ground was
covered with little grasshoppers about |
half an inch long. They filed the !
hollows in the ground, lined the fences, |
and bent down little twigs with their |
weight. l found them Matching all up |
the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Rail |
road, to Sedalia, Missouri"
''Are the people frightened ?"
mot so much as you would expect. |
They have theory, backed by years Of
experience, that the grasshopper never
does any damage where he matches out.
They say the damage Is done where
he lights. Then he never eats for two
years in succession IN the same place"
Where did they destroy the crops
last year,"
They ravished a section Of country
seven times as large as New England
all of Nebraska, Kansas and the Indian
Nation, and part of Texas, Arkansas
and Missouri.
"Then, this year, the grasshoppers
Will hatch out in the country which
they destroyed last year and fly into
and destroy the country beyOnd?'
Precisely so. They are now hatch
ing all over the section Of country
designated by the black lines, and fly
ing across into Iowa, Dakota, ulonOis,
Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri and Ar
zasas.
what do the grasshoppers eat?
''They eat every living thing. They
Eat the young corn, eat young trees,
destroy beets, turnips and every gar
len ves etable. They leave the country
IS bare as the Desert Of Sahara.
A MORE HOPEFUL VIEW.
New York Bulletin, May %.
The accounts are 50 inexClicit as to
exact locality and the extent Of injury
lone that it is difficult to estimate
what the damage 50 far amounts to.
We have nineteen counties IN Kansas,
Missouri and Nebraska, in which the
,rOps are reported as totally destroyed.
The total wheat crop Of these three
States was, IN 1870, 1882, 80 BUSH ]
is; Of which quantity the counties,
where the destruction Is reported to
nave been complete, produced 2,349,-
80 bushels; 50 that these counties
over only about one eighth of the n
ire crop Of Kansas, Missouri and Ne 5
Jraska, the States where the pest has
made its principal ravages. Up to the
present point, therefore, no serious ex-
ent Of destruction has been accom-
,ushed. How long the plague may be c
.ontinued and how much further it '
nay spread are questions on which no {
opinion can be formed at present.
opinions from the threatened region
hould be carefully received, for they
re apt to be influenced very much by
exaggerated apprehensiOns.