Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-06-29
THE GREAT WEST.
Ono OF the Formidable Obstacles which
the Progressive Westerner has to
Overcome.

Maine people have taken second handed
from their b0astful brothers of the far west
the perennial potato bug. and have demon
strated that the eastern vigOr in overcoming
such obstacles is second to none. Let us
hope that this struggle has sufficiently demon
strated the Maine farmers pluck and that he
may not be subjected to the terrible scourge
which the seventeen year locusts are intiict-
ing on the beautiful prairies of Illinois and
Iowa.
The first invasion of this pest that created
CONSERVATION was in 1854, and again, seven
teen years later, in 1871 the pest made its
appearance with increased numbers. The
insect now comes to time, just as was expect
ed, and the farmers are Mortified at the over
whelming army of ruthless plunderers that
huns and sings about their ears waiting
calmly for the crops to get in condition to be
eaten.
The locust is as ell known as if he were
a yearly visitor, and his appearance is pre-
dicted with precisely the same certainty as
the planets in their orbits. The etimologists
all know him intimately, and have never
made mistake in putting Their fingers on
the year when the pest will make its appear
ance.
The seventeen-year locust is large insect
which is born, lives and dies without travel
ing much. In 1854, they made their APP
pearance in Efingham County, Ill. They
came from the ground in such numbers that
the holes or perforations out of which they
came were so thick AS to almost intersect one
another. Even the marg inns of pretty hard
roads would show the clean-cut holes of the
travellers bound for daylight. Reaching the
surface the dirt brown adventurer carefully
felt its way to the first perpendicular object
weed shrub, bush or trunk of tree. Crawl
ing up a distance of six to eight inches, its
feet were glued fast to whatever it was cling
ing, and then of sudden, and sometimes
with distinguishable sound, a space of over
an inch opened along the back, and out of
this soon came the lull-winged locust, pre-
pared to fly, to sing and to die. The timber
tracts were the homes of the ephemeral visi
itors, and their united song was painful,
monotonous, varied only by cadences of a
rise or lull in the breeze. While eating
nothing themselves. except foliage and tend
er parts of shoots of trees and shrubs,
they were, nevertheless, eaten with avidity
by hogs. 1t did not take much imagination
to discover well-defned letter Nv" on the
wings of these locusts at that time, and by
the wiseacres of the day that was interpreted
to be sign of war before the next locust
coming. The female locust is supplied with
"chsel" and is also born with a know ledge
of how to use it. The "chsel," or sting, as
some called it in those days, was half inch
in length attached to the under part of the
body and extending backward. 1t was the
size of a stout needle, nearly as hard. and
terminated in sharp point. Taking position
on the under side of the twig selected for
puncturing, the locust would black up
until an incision was made downward and
inward nearly a half inch; then moving far
enough ahead for another. it was made
in the same way, and so on to the end of the
twig, with almost mechanical precision. The
eggs deposited were val-sblong in shape,
white in color and about the size of clover
seed. Under the invasion of foreign SUBJ
stances the twigs die and break off. While
on the ground the larva hatch from the eggs
aud crawl into the ground, where they thrive
and grow for seventeen years. Reaching
maturity, the pu aemerges from the ground,
climbs up the nearest tree or shrub and at
taches itself to the bark. Then its back
splits open and the winged insect works its
way out to liberty, leaving the lifeless case
attached to the shrub.
Within an hour or two from the time the
bug crawls out of the ground and up tree
the locust is in perfect shape to begin its
work of destruction. The insects hatch ont
in the evening usually and when the farmer
wakes up in the morning he finds his fields
orchards and crops covered with them. They
are numberless and there is no use to try to
fight them.