The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-06-28
THE GRASSHOPPERS.


A Gentleman who has Beeu Cultivating |
Their Acquaintance Thinks They VIII |
Not Ravage the Country to Any Great |
Extent This Year.
Prof. Cyrus Thomas, of the Board of |
United StatesE acknowledges Commission
ers, passed through Chicago the other
day, and was interviewed by a Times re-
porter, with the following result
st came direct from st. Paul" said
Prof. Thomas. ''On the same train
were several persons direct from what is
considered the native habitat of the
grasshopper in the far Northwest. One
was Mr.. Holbrook, who is pasturing
sheep north of Fort Shaw, on the Dear
born river. He has been in that section
for three years, and has, within the last
two weeks, passed over the section be-
tween Fort Benton and Dearborn river.
With him also came Mr.. George Gluck,
Of Iowa, who came direct from Fort
Walsh, in British America, and who has
been in that region for several years as
interpreter, and who recently was at
Woody mountains, where Sitting Bull is.
"Both of these gentlemen assert very
positively that the grasshoppers are
nothing in comparison with the numbers
seen there year before last [ have also
seen two persons within the last three
days who had just arrived from Tongue
river and the Yellowstone. They make
the same statement. In addition, sew
eral soldiers from various points in that
section, returning home, make the same
statements. [ am, therefore, we'll salts
fed that there will be no general inva-
sion this season from the Northwest
Flying locusts may be seen going north
ward in fact some have already been
seen at two or three points, and few
came down last Thursday north of Sioux
City. But I do not think any serious
dangeris to be unprecedented from these"
The Professor gave some account OF
his travels in the Northwest. 1t was
about month ago that he started out on
grasshopper hunt. He has been
securing around in Nebraska, Iowa and
Minnesota, and appears to have made a
very thorough examination of the coun-
try, and picked up a good deal Of grass
hopper information In Nebraska, ex-
cept in the river counties, most of the
grasshoppers are dead, and the survivors
will not, he thinks, be able to do more
than per cent. damage to the growing
crops. In Iowa the young grass
hoppers are mainly confined to a few
counties in the northwestern part of the
State. In certain localities they are suf-
fciently numerous to desolate the fields,
if they are allowed to get their growth
and go to ravaging for livelihood,
The Professor visited some seven or eight
counties in Minnesota where the outlook
for this years crop is very discouraging.
The farmers are disheartened, and some
of the farms have been abandoned to
the weeds. This apparently doomed
district is situated in the southwestern
quarter of the State, and embraces a
strip of country from thirty to fifty miles
wide and seventy-fye miles long.
Prof. Thomas takes a very cheerful
view of the grasshopper question, and
believes the problem, so far as it relates
to the young insect, has been solved
He says that by another year the farmers
will know how to employ most effective
ly the various devices invented for the
destruction of the pests. In his late
tour he found that some farmers had
used tar far more successfully than any
thing else, while others had driven all
their young 'hoppers into "last bitches"
dug for their interment. In Cherokee
county, Iowa, the farmers estimate that
they have destroyed, in bitches alone. at
least Is, 900 bushels, while 10000 bush
els of the insects have persisted from too
much tar in one of the counties or Min
nesota.