American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-10-07
How the Grasshoppers Came.

The New York Times publishes the
following letter, which it states was re-
Gently received by gentleman of that
city from his son in Saline County,
Kansas. The letter bears date Sept. 8:
My DEAR FATHER: Norman can sue
cessfully fight against nature. The
conquest is unequal nature caring no
more for man than grasshopper.
All! the chopper. To-day L lost
sixty acres of wheat, eaten into the
ground in less than an hour. thought
Ihad seen locusts two years ago, but l
was mistaken. At about 10 o'clock this
morning 1 noticed a heavy smoke rising
in the west. Isaid to myself, "that's
a strange looking smoke. What causes
itP'' 1 sat on my wheat drill and
watched it. Rapidly it arose-smoke
rising to the south, to the north, to the
northeast. Inafew minutes the column
of smoke extended from the south
around by the west to the northeast-to
the extreme limit of vision. While 1
was saying to myself, &c Yes, 1 under
stand you now,' y my heart slowly sank
Unhitching my team, put my full
wheat sacks in the wagon, hitched to
it, drove to the house, got my gun and
went prairie-chicken shooting. My wife
looked at me in mild surprise. Quitting
work on beautiful day to go shooting
was q queer thing, she thought. l did
not have the heart to tell her that in less
than four hours her nice garden would
be cleaned out and that all our wheat
would be gone. Soon the low hum, as
of a distant threshingmachine, filed
the air-ther advance of the locusts.
Louder, louder, ever louder the hum,
till in roar the countless billions of
devourers were on us, all around US.
The air was stiff with them. 1 could
look at the sun without blinking. They
settled constantly. The earth was cov-
cred with them, yet not one in q thou
sand stopped. To the east they went in
q vast cloud. A west wind, gale,
blew them. For six hours they few,
solid cloud and tonight there is not a
wheat plant left in any of the
counties about here. 1 sat on hill
and watched them, and smiled as saw
some hundreds tackle sunhower, and
laughed as 1 saw that sunfower vanish.
How thick they were! How harmless
they looked; but, great Jove, how they
ate! All! what appetites they have.
1t would make dyspeptic turn green
with envy to see the way they fasten
to any thing and every thing edible. 1
have joy in saying that 1 have eighty
acres of corn that will try their teeth
somewhat. 1t is as hard as corn can
be. 1 walked down this afternoon
to see how they were making out
with it. They had the stalks all strip
ped of leaves, and were saving at the
corn. But could see that it was no go.
Their teeth slipped over the bright yell
low surface. Our garden is perfectly
cleared; beans, cabbages, tomatoes,
melons, every thing utterly gone. The
vines to the potatoes are gone, and /
am expecting boss hopper up here at
any minute to request the loan of q
spade to dig up my potatoes with. l
shall refuse his request with scorn.
MANY years ago there was law up
on the statute-books of Connecticut
binding masters not to feed their APP
prentices on fresh salmon more than
twice or thrice a week. And now the
New Haven Register speaks of a time
a very good time, we should think
when shad were caught in Connecticut
rivers, but that salmon were so plenty
also that whoever bought q shad was
expected to take a couple of salmon for
the sake of getting them out of the way.
In fact, salmon were not of much &C
count.