The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-09-17

DURING the present season, IN nearly
all parts of the state, grasshoppers In
sufficient numbers to create feeling of
danger among farmers have made their
appearance and caused not little fnan-
cial loss by their depredations. That the
seeds are being planted for large crop
of grasshoppers for next year there is not
the slightest doubt. From reports re-
ceived from various places in the western
and central part of Wisconsin it would
seem that the grasshopper, or locust, for
such it really is, has made its appearance
during the past season in such large
numbers as to create the fear that there
will be a swarm next year. In some
parts of the state the choppers have
destroyed many valuable fields of grain.
Because this has not been general, Or
because the pest has only seemed to be
local to each place, the fact has slipped
by with but slight attention.
WORK OF DESTRUCTION.
About forty acres of good crop of
wheat was destroyed at Manchester,
Green county; oats, corn and tobacco In
Columbia county, have suffered great
deal; the hoppers We're SO thick In one
place IN Iowa county, that whole bundles
of wheat that had been harvested on one
farm, wire devoared. At White Oak the
fences have been alive with the insects,
which swoop down at sunset and eat the
seed from timothy. In another place
they cut the straw in fields of oats SO
badly that it was impossible and useless
to harvest it. The ravenous pests are
reported to have been present in such
large numbers In one place that the
handles of hoes, forks and other farm
implements were SO badly roughed by
their teeth as to make them almost use
less. In Fond du Lac, Dane, Rock,
Walworth and other counties there have
been many droves of hoppers. They
have been present in the counties in
swarms of millions, but have devoted
their destroying work to fields OF grain
here and there. A patch of oats, for
instance would be ruined on one farm,
and nothing else would be harmed.
They would Their Swarm" and fly per-
haps mile to another field and ruin
few acres of oats, wheat, tobacco, or any
other crop where they CHANGED to drop.
WHAT II MAY MEAN.
This condition of things indicates,
according to what farmers have expert.
enced in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and
other Western states, that the ravenous
little pests are scattering their eggs
throughout the state, and that in another
year, perhaps. if the season is favorable
to the Matching of the eggs their numbers
will be increased a thousand-fold. The
best authorities on the subject say that
cold, dry, or even warm winter is certain
to prove disastrous to the farmer IN this
connection, but that long period of
rains will aid much in rotting the eggs
in the cocoons, which are laid in the
ground. Each cocoon contains fly eggs,
and there are sometimes $50 cocoons to
the square inch, when the plague is upon
the land. This would make to every inch
OF ground $500 grasshoppers. This is
the manner in which the plague has come
upon other states. A Lake Mills paper
describes the appearance of swarm of
the insects on farm in that vicinity, and
says they are of the Dakota species; that
they fly for miles at time and devote
their destroying energies to fields of
grain here and there. They do not hop
around like the ordinary grasshopper,
but When their work of ruin is completed,
select another place, where they go
together. 1t is while they are at work in
this way, no doubt, that the millions of
little eggs are planted.
ENORMOUS FEEDING CAPACITY.
When the grasshopperS are first hatch
ed they look like little black fieas cover
ing the ground; but they commence to
feed at once upon all green things in their
way and grow with great rapidity. Their
color soon becomes green. They climb
up the young grain stalks three or four
to stalk, and nip at it with little
mechanism that works back and forth
like pair of jaws with such rapidity that
nobody could ever count the nippiDgs.
The food they take in passes through
their simply constructed digestive system
in three minutes, and hence their capacity
| for feeding is illimitable. When they
leave wheat field they leave only stub
BILE, for they will hang to a field until they
completely destroy it. It is said that
| they are with difficulty observable while
at the work Of devastation, but that when
| they grow to maturity they are one and
on9 half to two inches in length and are
not such busy workers as the younger
| ones. Before the season is over gossamer
wings break out on their sides, and thew
fill the air and commence to breed. At
this stage of development they eat very
little. This natural history of the insect
would confirm the belief that wave is
to come over the grain fields of Wisconsin
at no distant day. The hoppers that
have thus far appeared, although they
have caused great deal of damage to
the fields that they have attacked,
have not wholly annihilated every
thing in their path, which would,
according to this theory, strengthen the
belief that they We're in the act of plant
ing their cocoons. From some sections
it is reported that such is the case.
Wherever an examination of the earth
has been made it has resulted in the
discovery of thousands of cocoons, or what
the farmers suppose to be the eggs
| lfiltC0ukee Sentinel.