The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-05-27
LOCUST PLAGUE.
Terrihee Devastation In the Fertile
Va1)eys Of California. = Grain
FteIds And Orchards DIasted.
Peopjo Driven From Their
Invaded Homes.

Fields And Orchards Blasted.
Peoplo Driven From Their
Invaded Homes.
SAN FRANCISCO, May pa large
portion of the foothill region of CAL
ifornia is being devastated by such
swarms of grasshoppers that they
amount 10 nothing short of a plague.
Grasshcppers have appeared in lone
valley in such numbers as to amount
to a sconrge. The grain crop, which
only promised about half yield
before, is now likely to be utterly
ruined. The Sacramento Bee gives
the following from correspondent
at Folsom "The grasshoppers are
numerous and are destroying every
thing within reach. The Natoma
Company has force of about fifty
men continually fighting them, and
500 pounds were captured yesterday
which they offer for sale at 3 cents a
sack, being the cost of the sack. AT
Zeinwaldt's place they are brushing
them into the ditch, and they are so
thick that you cannot see the water.
J. E. Blanchard says that they visi-
ted his place and did over $1,000
damage in one day."
]. H. Miller, of Latrobe tells the
editor of a Sacramento paper that
he had fine field of 1000 acres of
barley, and in less than twenty-four
hours after the hoppers reached it,
there was not the slightest yestige of
the crop left, even to the roots, and
the ground the next day looked as
if it had just been plowed and har-
rowed. He says in the neighbor-
hood of Latrobe and White Rock
the stencil arising from the dead
bodies of the hoppers that
CLOG UP THE RUNNING STREAMS
is more offensive than the worst ag-
gregation of slaughter houses. The
country for miles around, usually at
this time of the year covered with
long grass and bedecked with wild
! flowers, presents most desolate ap-
pearance, and looks as though it had
been swept by fire. The large farmers
in that neighborhood have, like Mr..
Miller lost their entire crop and the
feed on their pastures. An infor-
4 mant from the Cosumne says the
grasshoppers are destroying all the
cornfelds in that vicinity, while the
\ Marysville papers say that wheat
fields around Smartsville are being
devastated by 'myriads of grass
hoppers."
The grasshoppers are eating the
foliage from orange, peach and apple
trees about Wyandotte, and are also
destroying the vegetables in the gar
dens. The Natoma Vineyard is
said to be suffering severely from
the "hoppers.' with prospect of
their mischief increasing. A gentle
man from Rocklin states that the
California Raisin Company's vine
yard, near that place has been en-
tirely denuded by the grasshoppers-
Captain Wescott, the manager of the
company's property, says that while
, the raisin product OF the vineyard
was last year many thousands OF
dollars, the fruit of the entire 160
acres of bearing vines will not this
| year be over $500 The destruction
is almost complete. A Sacramento
paper states that 10000 acre stock
ranch in the southern part Of I'll
Dorado county has been entirely
denuded of everything green, pine
and willow trees stripped of their
foliage, and in nearly every instance
the trees, vines and shrubs have
been entirely killed. The springs,
wells, reservoirs, bitches. watering
trougns and streams are filled with
dead bodies of myriads of the insects
in putrid state. the water has be-
come poisoned, stock refuse to drink
it, and the stencil arising therefrom
is nauseating in the extreme.
In Grass Valley the insects are
eating the peaches down to the pits.
In attacking a vineyard they com
mence with the nearest row, and,
after eating the vines down to the
old wood proceed to the next, and
so on. The orchards around Red
Bluff are said to have been entirely
devastated. The fruit trees and
grapevines around Folsom are being
stripped, and it is no exaggeration
to say that all the hopyards in the
northern portion of the State have
been eaten up and left entirely
bare. They have reached the young
vineyards of Deer creek and the
middle Sacramento, and have played
such havoc with the tender vine
yards that this years crop is a nulli-
ty.
The California and Oregan freight
train Of thirty-five cars got stalled
about mile from Roseville, when
comingto the city, Wednesday night,
in consequence of the number of
grasshoppers that had collected on
the track. 1t was found necessary
to cut the train in two, take part to
Roseville. and then 90 back after
the remainder. They are so thick
all along the line of the railroad
that the officials are planning out a
kind of plow or scraper to clear them
from the rails.
Killed Bv LlghtnjuR.