Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-04-26
THE FLIGHT OF TaE LocrSrs.
They Eat up Every Green Thing, and Leay
the Earth Desert

They Eat up Every Green Thing. and Leave
the Earth Desert
An army of locusts is a wonderful and
an interesting sight to the traveller who
does not own yard of soil, aad is a mere
onlooker at their frig httul devastation,
SAYS the English Mechanic 1t is Attila
and his innumeraSie horses rushing over
the vegetable world. To day the wide
plains are shining green with dense foll-
age; to-morrow nothing but brown twigs
and bare branches, whea the leglons
move off on their combined mission.
AS they arrived, the dense, dark clouds
moving up from the ho.izon, and often
obscuring che suns rays, proclaim the
approach of the widely dreaded scourge.
The alarmed villagers congregate on the
expected line of march, beating drums
and brass pots, shouting and lighting
bontires and making all kinds of hideous
noises. On one occasion, in South Africa
| drove off the enemy from friends
garden by making fou heaps of damp
rubbish-one az each corner--in prepar-
alton, and then, lighting them at the
proper moment, we dispersed the ad
vance guard, our column of hick smoke
being carried by the wind upon the main
body, which altered its route. Horses
and oxen, their heads and nostrils tor
mented by the clinging limbs of the
swan nls, were boiling away TO the woods,
kiching and plunging IN sheir hasty fight
Kissing, cracking sound arose on all
sides, aud the whole air seemed to be oc-
cupied by the falling and Ay ing lamps
mischief. The locust "birds" Ia kind of
crane) lowered in small parties on their
tanks, and subsisted on very small per
centage of the insect hosts. In desert
localities the hungry pests actually
pitched on bones, mating, sticka, ETC,
and failing in meal attacked and de.
voured each other. Ga another occasion
l drove for miles along a sandy tract,
the wheels q the vehicle crushing nv
RAIDS of the newly Matched insects, all
crawling and creeping, with migratory
instinct, toward the cultivated tracts. In
India the locust visits are fewer between,
but far more formidable, owing 10 the
overwhelming masses. Sometimes a
series of clouds, com posed of their flights
cover several miles simultaneously. For
tunately, there are several bids and
beasts in quest of their bodies, and |
have even seen them sailed, dried, and
sold in the markets. / have often inspect
ed dish of curried locust, bat could not
bring a sufficient amount of curiosity TO
bear on the tasting experiment, though a
prawny odor went up with the steam.
The fl hes are great devourers of these
winged visitors, for they fail into lakes
and rivers during changes of WIND and
weather. Besides fires made of green
rubbish at the top, | found gunpowder
explosions very useful III soaring them
Nay from the vicinity of my garden.
When several successive hotdes alighted
on my grass land l loaded my gun with
dust shot, and stopping low on the ground
discharged the contents of both barrels
into their midst. Having d one so several
tin es, / enjoyed the welcome sight Of
seeing them rising into the air and going
elsewhere. have no doubt small can
non on such occasions. heavily loaded
with sharp sand, would hasten their
flight.