Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-06-22

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it look more beautiful than at this time.
Then, not a human habitation was in view,
andindeed, but -four existed. Far away over
the valley and table lands, like a field Of
golden grain, waved one vast sea of bunch-
grass, over which roamed unmolested herds
of wild game. Now the valley, foothills
and high plateaus are one vast green mead
ow. Here and there over the entire valley,
were bands Of horses and cattle iaZily feast
ing and fattening upon the rich repast which
nature had spread out before them.
This magnificent valley which only eleven
years ago was unbroken by a flllrow,' now
teens with agricultural products of all kinds.
Fences mark off the land into farms, and
neat amid comfortables homes have sprung
up-not costly mansions such as adorn the
prairies Of Missouri and Illinois, but COM
Portable log dwellings, tasteftllly arranged,
with neatly furnished parlors, presided over
by farmers daughters who are merry as
larks, who entertain their friends with music
and song, and who are as bewitching, grace
full and prepossessing in their simple homes
as the bellies of any cline. fg e
The prospect for a cropisnot so good as
we anticipated. Never before has it looked
so backward. Legions of gra%sshoppers in
many Of the.felds have moved down every
spear of grain as it appeared above ground,
and but few fields are QUITO of danger. Sew!
eral farmers have had their wheat crop en-
tirely destroyed, and are sre-planting with
oats. Whether this crop will be devoured
as fast asit comes up remains to be seen.
The wheat crop cannot be otherwise than
light, butt is thought the, oat crop will be
fair. Much, howevea, depends upon the
future movements of the gsassheppars.
One thing is apparent. that is that those
who labored hard and i~ntelligently to saw
their crops have partially succeeded, while
those who gave up without an effort. have
failed entirely. zssf i 4ssgf .esag3
In someinstances, where the ggasshoppers
have Matched out upon the ground they
have held possession of it, and such fields
areas bare to-day as when first plowed, 4to[
But where the grasshoppers march upon
a field in solid phalanx, as they often do,
their progress may be arrested. Mr.. j. G..
Pickering eXterminated q column which
was marching upon his field, by spreading
a swath of straw about ten feet wide, ahead
Of them, and when they We're nesting in it
as they are prone to do, near shutdown, he
set fine to it. 484 Y .f4s8b@aa ,.fs.W 48 agffH
Mr. Job Thompson made a large platform
Of Notwithstanding and covered it thickly
with a batter made of flour and water, and
dragged it over his field with horses. When
the batter was covered with the appesky
things" he would stir it up and drive on
until no more would stick to 1t, then he
would drive to his poultry yard and rest
while the fowls were cleaning the platform
for another coat Of batter.
Other farmers arrested them in their march
by running large bitches ahead of them, but
now they are so large that they can cross a
common irrigating ditch with ease, and we
can see but little hope for grain that is not
beyond their reach, unless they soon take
wings and fly away. .4'i'its4 Rfsts liatf
IT sEEMs, a little singular that the inyen-
tive genius OF. the nineteenth, century is I'M
able to devise and construct a machine for
the destruction of g~rasshoppers.a There are
several machines spoken, of, but we doubt il
anything has yet been invented that is cal
culated to solve the %grasshopper problem.
A machine that would catch say three
fourths of the grasshoppers IN the ground,
and take a swath twenty feet in width would
be worth a thousand dollars to every neigh
borhood. We.belieye that such a machine