The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-05-18

Ol SuCcSSSs
To this end / hope you will favor
me with fall report of your tour of
observation, together with such sug-
stroying the locust, as your observa-
ton and experience shall warrant.
This statement from you will be ac-
cepted as authentic by the great ma
jority of our people, and will allay
fear if there is no danger, and awaken
to action if pending peril exists.
Very Respectfully,
GEo. T. ANTHONY.
Governor of Kansas.
SALINA, KANSAS, May 10, 1877.
To Geo. I. Anthony, Governor of the
State Of Kansas,
MY DEAR SIR: Your favor of the
9TH inst. is before me. / am entirely
of your opinion as to the Importance
of getting at the real facts and pros
poets in connection with the locust in
jury. The dispatches to our papers are
SO often colOred in the interest of land
owners, and loan and real estate
agents, that the community at large
pace but small reliance on them. 1t
is, moreover, the avowed policy of
many journals to suppress the truth
about locust troubles, under the mis-
taken notion that such suppression
benefits; whereas no policy is more
injurious to a community in the end.
In the present instance the favorable
reports arc, in the main, warranted :;
and there is no doubt in my mind that
throughout the larger part of Kansas
the battle is already fought, and the
future injury must be comparatively
triffiing. For nearly three weeks l
have been travelling and observing in
Texas and Southern Kansas, and feel
safe in making the above statement
for that part of your state which /
have visited. Throughout the locust
area of the state south of the Kansas
Pacific railroad-which area includes
most OF the region bounded on the
east by a line running from little
west of Lawrence toward Fort Scott,
and on the west by another passing up
through Hutchinson and Ellsworth
the eggs were laid in sufficient guam
titles to have given birth to lOcusts
enough to haYe eaten everything green
by the time they attained full growth,
under conditions favorable to them.
Many OF the eggs were destroyed by
the authomyid egg parasite, and the
other enemies described in my writ
ings. Some of them Matched in the
fall, and many more during the warm
weather of the latter part of January
and fore part of February. The in
sects thus Matched persisted. The
bulk of the eggs Matched during the
last week of March and early part OF
April. The young insects were very
thick then they commenced to do in
jury and begat general fear. The
farmers for the most part fought them
with energy. Then followed, from
the middle of April on, a period of cold
and wet weather; the enemy rapidly
weakened and was from all quarters
reported as disappearing.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE YOUNG.
In every part of the state which l
have visited, and where have exam
ined carefully the conditions of things,
the young locusts have very largely
in some Instances NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ed and I now have no doubt, what
ever, that the reports of such disap-
pearance that are so general through
out the entire portion of the state that
was threatened, have their foundation
in fact. This disappearance is gener-
ally attributed to death aud dissolution
from the cold and wet weather that
followed the principal Matching. That
this weather has been largely instru-
mental in causing death among the
hopping pests / have no doubt, be-
cause there are always 8 certain por-
ton just Matched or just molting,
which are particularly tender and
susceptible to the injurious effects OF
cold, drenchiDg rains. But they have
been dying and are now dying fast
during the present warm and sunny
weather, and these dead insects are
not parasited, but simply diseased
sick. In my last (9th) report made
to the state of Missouri, in stating the
causes that might diminish the prOspec-
tive injury, wrote:
"We may therefore expect that, as
compared with 1875, larger prepor-
ton of the young that will hatch in
1877, will be weakly and soon per-
ish. There is bare posi-
bility that, after the bulk of the young
have Matched, and before they have
commenced to do serious harm, we
may have such unreasonable cold and
wet weather as to kill them by myri-
ads, and effectually weaken their pow
er for injury.
Both possibilities have become ac-
Qualities.
1t is singular fact, however, that
Notwithstanding the large number
which Matched, no one has been able
| to discover the carcasSeS of these dis
appearing l0custs in anything like the
| numbers necessary to account for ths
disappearance; and in most instances
where dead insects have been reported
to me, an examination at once showed
| that the parties had mistaken therefor
the exuvB or empty skins of those
which had molted; which skins are
always abundant under straw OF
weeds, or at the base of a wheat stool
where the young insects congregatG
when undergoing their nolts.
/ The young locusts possess remark
able tenacity of life; and the fact tina
the bulk of those remaining are in the
! third stage d.. e., have molted twice
and mast have Matched before the un
favorable weather set in, is in itsel
enough 70 show that other factors thar
those meteorological have entered large,
ly into the problem of disappearance
The principal Of these viii brief ]
enumerate, because, unlike meteorOlo
gical or climatic influences, they may
most Of them, be relied upon in future
are largely within mans csntrol, anG
may even be rendered still more eff
fective. They are, in short, element
of certainty in the problems of tn,
locust destruction:
First-1he adtETdl ene1aies Of the 10
cast. These consist in the present In
stance 1.-THE parasites not affecting It till I
gets oldef) of the vertebrate animal
which are known TO feed upon it, such 9
snakes. gophers, field mice, etc, and birds
i These last have been more efficient thai
most OF US imagine, and 1 never saw
Il hfaaEhfPff0 nInVeS. etc. nfFmRrnne
Their dung often Whitens the fields 1her
the Iocusts were once thick, and they haV
been the principal cause OF the latter
/ disappearance. The prolonged cold an,
| wet retarded the development Of the In
seets, benefited the wheat, and gave on
| feathered friends an excellent opportunft,
to check them. We should employ al
means TO encourage the multiplication c
the birds.