The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-03-07
House, Farm and Garden.
Fighting Grasshoppers.

lHo lued Is Tapluly gaming ground
that such insects as grasshoppers,
chinch bugs and the cotton worm are
national pests which should be inves-
tigated by men employed and paid out
of the National Treasury. There are,
no doubt, many persons who will op-
pose any such measure, contending that
the agriculturist should protect his
own crops or see them destroyed, but
this line of argument would leave the
people Of any one locality or State to
defend themselves against all enemies
Of whatever nature or kind, which we
think few will contend would be right
or proper.
DR.. AS. Packard, the we'll. known
entomologist, writes to the New York
Tribune, giving some statistics in, re-
gard to the destructiveness of the
Western grasshopper or locust, which
will doubtless astonish some of our read
crs who are safely beyond the reach of
this great pest:
The question whether the Western
States and Territories are to be peo-
pied by grasshoppers to the exclusion
of the white man, is one of some in.
terest. In the year 1875 it is said that
10000 settlers left the State of Kansas,
driven out by grasshoppers, the off
spring of swarms which the year be-
fore travelled some 500 miles or more
from the Rocky Mountains. Locusts
do not swarm in this way every year,
but the intervals between their vista
tions have been shorter of late years
than formerly. The great breeding
places are in our Western States and
Territories. The most extensive pas.
lures are the fertile pralries extending
from Minnesota to Texas. Government
aid has been invoked IN a convention
of the Governors of the afflicted Ter
ritories and States, and it is to be
hoped that the National Government
will set on foot such inquiries by scien.
tific men as will lead to practical meas
ures in fighting the locust.
In dealing with this fearfully de-
structive insect, it is of prime i'm
portance to have thorough knowl-
edge of it's breeding places, the fire.
quency and extent of it's migrations,
and to seek for the connection between
the direction of the wind and the me-
neurological phenomena, and tho flight
of the locusts. The locust is quite or
nearly as destructive in Africa, Asia,
and in Southern Europe as in this
country, but the laws of their migra-
tions and their connection with me.
tt geological occurrences have never
been studied in those regions, and it
remains for the United States, with it's
invaluable Weather Signal Bureau, to
institute, in connection with the scien-
tific surveys of the West, investiga-
tions regarding the nature of the evil
and the best means to overcome it.
1t appears that locust years are years
of unusual drought; that these dry
seasons came around every seven or
eight years. In such summers grass
hoppers breed in untold millions the
supply of food being short, they are
forced to fly off hundreds of miles.
For example, a swarm of locusts oh.
served by Prof. Robinson, of the Uni
versity of Kansas, near Boulder City,
Colorado, travelled distance of about
six hundred miles to Eastern Kansas
and Missouri. Though the swarm was
first observed at Boulder, it was then
on its way from the north, and may
have come from some part of Wyoming
200 or 300 miles north-westward Or
northward. We know enough of the
winds in the Western States and Terri
tories to lay down the law that the
general direction of the winds in July
and August along the eastern slope of
the Rocky Mountains and on the plains
is from the west and northwest, and
accords with the eastward course of
the locust swarms. The relations be-
tween the average direction of the
winds and the migrations of the locust
have not been sufficiently studied.
We need more light. Indeed, if we
would intelligently study the causes of
the excessive increase and migrations
of the locust we must examine the me-
neurological features of the Western
country, ascertain the periods of
drought and of undue rainfall, the av-
erage direction of the wind for the