Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1876-10-26
Grasshoppers in Kansas.
A Blooming Farm Devastated in
an HOur-An Original Ae-
count of the Occurrence,

Va VIZ CSS0A CAACCs
y The following original an,
) characteristic account of tn
Kansas grasshopper plague i
taken from a private letter from
} Saline county, Kansas:
MYDEAR FATHER: No MAJ
can successfully fight agains
, nature. The contest is unequa
mature caring no more for
man than for grasshoppel'
All! the chopper" To-day
lost sixty acres of wheat, eater
,finto the ground in less than al
hour. | thought | had seen 10.
Gusts two years ago, but | was
mistaken. At about ten O'Clock
this morning / noticed a heavy
smoke rising in the west.
said to myself: "I'hat is strange
looking smoke. What causes
it?" | sat on my wheat drill
and watched it. Rapidly it a.
rOse-smoke rising to the south,
to the north, to the northeast.
In a few minutes the column of
smoke extended from the south
around by the west to the north
Ieast-to the extreme limit Of
vision. While | was saying to
myself: eyes, / understand
you now," my heart slowly
sunk. Unhitching my team, l
put my full wheat sacks in the
wagon, hitched to it, drove to
the granary, unloaded, drove 10
the house, got my gun, and
went prairie chicken shooting.
My wife looked at me in mild
surprise. Quitting work on a
beautiful day to go shooting
was a queer thing, she thought.
| 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 threshing
machine, filled the air--the ad-
vance of the locusts. Louder,
louder, ever louder the hum, till
| in a roar the countless billions
of devourers were on us, all a.
round Us. The air was stiff
with them. ! could look at the
sun without blinking. They
settled constantly. The earth
was covered with them, yet not
one in a thousand stopped. To
| the east they went in a vast
clo"d. A west wind, a gale,
blew them. For six hours they
flew, solid cloud; and tonight
there is not a wheat plant left
in any of the counties about
here | sat on a hill and watched
them, and smiled as l saw some
hundreds tackle a sunfower,
and laughed as l saw that sun
! flower vanish. How thick they
were! How harmless they
looked; but how they ate! All!
what appetites they have. 1t
would make a dyspcptic turn
green with envy to see the way
they fasten to anything and ev-
erything edible. The charac-
teristic of grasshopper's ap-
petite is, that all he eats runs to
appetite. Sixty acres of my
wheat was up. Now it is down
the outlets of the locusts. |
suppose they will take the resi-
due as it comes through the
ground. Well, l shall have to
reseed, that is all. But the loss
of seed and labor is pretty sore
on me this year. have JOY in
saying that l have eighty acres
of corn that will try their teeth
somewhat. 1t is as hard as corn
can be. / walked down this
afternoon to see how they were
making out with it. They had
the stalks all stripped of leaves,
and were saving at the corn.
But l could see that it was no
go. Their teeth slipped over
the bright-yellow surface. |
have gone to haying again, and
will hay until the locusts leave.
l still keep three plows running,
and will reseed as soon as pos
sible. Our garden is perfectly
cleared; beans, cabbages, to-
matoes, melons, everything ut
terly gone. The vines to the
potatoes are gone, and am ex-
pecting boss hopper up here
at any minute to request the
loan of a spade to dig up my
potatoes with. ] shall refuse
4 his request with scorn.