The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-07-08
The Flight Of the LOeusts.

A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune
writes from Oregon, Holt County, Mo-,
June Is, as follows:
To give you some idea of the locust
plagur, let me describe briefly their flight.
K even days ago they began to pass here
overhead. They begin TO rise up about
O'Clock, and by 10 they are nearly all on
wing. They go as the wind drives them.
Exc pting one day, when we had wind
from the north, their fight has been from
the south n0rtherly. Looking up, at any
time between the hours of 10 and 4, to-
wards the sun, they may be seen passing
I like large snOw-fiakes rapidly as their
wings and the wind can make them. By
large spy-glaSs, judge the swarm to
/ be about half mile deep. And so they
go, day after day. By night they settle
down. On the evening of the day before
/ yesterday. we concluded the swarms were
about exhausted, as not nearly so many
| had paSSed during that afternoon. and we
congratulated ourselves on possible future
exemption. But yesterday the air was
again full of them; and last evening,
about 8 miles north of this. they came
I down in & line extending all across the
country, in such tremendous clouds as TO
frighten people. Many persons that were
out ran in doors, fearing less they might be
sn1othsred. A gentlemaR, Judge Russell,
who was riding rlong, said that for some
time he regarded it as a vast stOrm-cloud
coming down over the whole land, and
the sound was said by one to resemble
that made by a locomotive and long train
of cars. Now, to-day, with a southeast
wind. the air is again filed with them,
flying to the northwest.
just think, then, that, as they fly with
an average velocity of 10 miles per hour,
and the width of the swarm is not less
than 80 to 75 miles. and that this is now
the siXtieth hour of continuous nOrther-
ly flight, and that the swarm is at least
half a mile deep, with the lOcusts not over
4 inches apart from each other in any di-
rectisn-just think. say, what numbers
of them are here. They are the very same
kind as described in the Agricultural Re
portf for 1862, that many years ago atflict-
ed Lancaster County, Pa. There is no
mystery or peculiarly about these. An
accidental chance then favored their over
production there, just as circumstances
out West on these plains is always favor
ing them in some places, so that OCCASION
ally they are Overproduced, swarm off,
lay eggs, and die. These eggs, being laid
in the fall late, do not hatch till spring,
and thus come such myriads of them as
now. But one might imagine their
leader, if they have one, weeping like
another Xerxes at the mortality of his
followers, for those now Matched and fly
ing will deposit their eggs in such mis-
time that they must be all hatched out in
late October, and all perish during the
winter. This lot will come toan end soon
after laying its eggs. 1t seems to be an
error about their being destroyed by the
red parasites as Mark Twain would say.
they rather like them and are proud of
them. / have tested that point thorough
ly. They leave them on their old clothes
when they shed off, and new ones come
on them. In fact, like the Indians, To-
Gusts are lousy.