St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-09-19
AN ITALIAN LOCUST HUNT.
How Capri Peasants Destroy tho Summer
Pest by the Wholesale.

AN ITALIAN LOCUST HUNT.
How Capri Peasants Destroy tho Summer
Pest by the Wholesale.
/ was quietly at work in my study at
Capri one day in very hot August.
laboring to breathe as well as the great
heat would let me, when a Withholding
youth rushed in to me from Anacapri,
crying out that the locusts had come.
The disease of the vine had already
caused great loss, and now there were
the locusts eating up the harvest. A
great part of Anacapri was as bare, the
youth told me, as if a fire had swept
across it. The invaders had already
got over the brow of the mountain and
were in the woods below. Would 60
out and see them. Certainly would.
As we approached their advanced
guard under cover of a low wood, we
could hear the incessant click, click, of
the enemy. and every now and then we
were fallen upon by their scouts. which
dashed against our faces and chung to
our clothes. As we proceeded we found
them trolicking in legions, like imps
let loose for mischief. The atmosphere
being rather thicker than l liked. l
did not go that morning to see how
things looked at the worst. went
back to pay visit to the Syndic and as
certain what could be done to mend
them.
Trouble of this kind comes upon
Capri every three or four years; but
there has been no swarm so great as
this one since the great plague of To-
Gusts which had occurred some twenty
years before the time of which l am
writing THAT, indeed" said my in
formant. was awful. They climbed our
walls, got into our houses and churches,
crawled over the affairs. ate up the en-
tire harvest. and who can say what
might have happened if it had not been
for st. Antonio? Some missionary
priests were then among us. and they
ordained solemn procession of women
they were all to walk with their hair
loose about their shoulders, with the
priest in front carrying the image Of
the saint. Before the procession was
over strong east wind came and blew
all the locusts into the sea, just over the
Blue Grotto. All, signor, st. Antonio
is powerful !"
Report having been formally made
to the Syndic, His Excellency. in true
official style, ordered bag of the dew
astating animals to be collected and
sent off to the Subintendent, who re-
sided at Castellamare, in order that he
might ascertain whether they were
really locusts. Until that point was Of
ficially decided the Syndic could dis
burse none of the public money to ar
rest the plague, which, in the mean.
time. was of course spreading over the
woods and fields with the rapidity of a
prairie fire. The grain was being bitten
off under the ear as clearly as though
cut by a knife. the fig trees being
stripped and barked. The messenger
did not arrive at Castellamare till after
business hours. when the Deputy was
enjoying his evening leisure and would
be disturbed by no one.
On the next day, however, the Syndic
If Anacapri. having obtained the requi-
site authority, attached proclamation
to the walls of the house, offering re-
ward for the capture of locusts at
the rate of penny for pound. All
the idle population of the district in
stantly became as busy as bees, and
went out locust-hunting in parties Of
five or six, provided with sacks and
sheets. A sheet held BY a man at each
corner being lifted up like wall across
the path of the invaders, one or two
people with brooms beat the bushes and
swept the earth. causing the disturbed
locusts to fly on until the sheet was
black with them. 1t was then quickly
doubled up, the insects scraped from
it into sack, and prepare
tons instantly made for captur-
ing another batch in the same
way. A locust hunter told me that he
was earning at this work sixteen pence
day, or six pence beyond his usual
daily wages. was told also by the
parish priest Of Anacapri that in few
days the whole body of hunters in that
small district captured upward Of twen-
ty hundred weight, but that he remem-
bered one season in which there were
as many taken in single morning.
The reward for captured locusts was
not paid until they were dead and
buried. Dead and unburied they would
soon putrefy under hot sun and breed
a pestilence. There is point in the
island called Monte Solario. about eigh-
teen hundred feet above the level of the
sea. Thither the locusts are all taken
after they have been soaked in boiling
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