The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-11
THE KANSAS PLAGUE.
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO THE GRASS
HOPPERS TOOK FLIGHT.

in the City Streets
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Fifteen years ago this week a mighty
cloud of winged insects rose from stricken
Kansas. It darkened the sun and then
rolled away TO the north and west toward
the Rocky mountains. In less than one
hour the grasshopper plague had vanished
and hope took the place of despair in the
hearts Of the people.
In the summer of 1874 Kansas suffered
from a severe drought. In August naked
stalks of weeds and dry blades of grass
ratified at every step of the passer-by. Hot
winds came from the south and the west,
and one day, on the wings of these warm
messengers, came a shower of grasshoppers,
or Rocky mountain locusts. Big fellows they
We're. an inch and half in length. They
hoped about for a few days, but. finding
little to eat, disappeared almost as sud-
denly as they had come. No damage was
done to the crops. for such as had wealth
cred the trying drought were all matured.
The older settlers shook their heads and
said: These old hoppers will never trouble
US again, but there is certain disaster ahead.
We must look out for their many times
multiplied progeny. Next spring we shall
have grasshoppers in swarms, where this
year they have come in handfuls."
THE GROUND WAS HoNEYCoMBED.
A careful examination of the ground
proved that these fears were we'll founded.
There were millions of tiny holes in which
eggs had been deposited. The laying of
these eggs was, in fact, the sole mission of
this vanguard of the grasshopper army.
There was, Of course, much apprehension of
coming hard times. But many forgot what
they had SO much dreaded.
Here and there wise man sold his farm
at much sacrifice and moved away Others
sought to avert the danger by turning up
every square rod of land on their farms to
the trosts of winter In this way eggs were
doubtless destroyed, but as the wise old
grasshoppers had selected places along the
roadside where the ground was hardest in
which to deposit their eggs, the larger por-
ton of them were left undisturbed. Be-
sides, there was no concert of action among
the farmers, and no systematic efforts made
to head off the pest.
Spring came, and with it came all the
busy scenes connected with farm life. 1t
was an early season. April saw every crop
in and we'll under way. May opened in all
her beauty, and yet no sign of grasshoppers.
But the closing days of that beautiful May
brought the vindication of the prophets.
ARRIVAL OF THE YOUNGSTERS.
HO llbCio RI doouOpDGES D6Rdn 10 appear,
They could be counted at first, and they
were such tiny things. The next day they
had come in countless millions, and for sew
eral days thereafter they seemed to increase
in the same ratio, until they were no longer
estimated in numbers, but the terms bush
els, tons and square miles each in turn
served as a unit of measurement. The land
all at once seemed to have become alive.
The surface was moving in a mass, now in
this direction in hat
peared as if an all powerful magician with
single pass of his wand had spoken them
out of existence. The fields were laid as
bare as winter had left them. Gardens bore
not vestige of their recent greenness. The
little insects were particularly fond of
onions and radisEes. They ate down to the
smallest hair roots, leaving the beds curl
ously perforated. Nothing green on or near
the ground escaped their ravages, except
the leaves of the Usage orange. The hedges
of this shrub we're left untouched
GsSuddenly the grasShoppers increased in
size. They had moulted. Then they seemed
to have a fondness for city life. They
Travelled the streets in vast droves. As
vegetation disappeared, they became weak
and inactive and no longer tried to get out
of the way of pedestrians. They were
crushed in great numbers on the pave
ments
AS the insects became weakened from
lack of food, they seemed to be greatly af-
fected by the heat of the sun, and in order
to avoid it they crowded along the shadows
of buildings on the south side of street.
Here they were piled upon one another
against the walls of the buildings to the
hight of foot or more. From this came
the expression, ''grasshoppers drifted foot
deep" The stencil from their crushed bodies
was very trying to the olfactories Had it
not been for several dashing rains, which
cleaned the streets from end to end, the
consequences might have been much more
serious.
LIKE THE FROGS OF EGYPT.
Grasshoppers were everywhere. They
came into the houses, and, like the frogs in
plague-stricken Egypt, found their way
into the breadtrays. You break open a
biscuit at meal time, ard behold, grass
hopper. You turn down the bed covers on
retiring, and out jump grasshoppers. Pump
spouts were clogged with the insects. 1t
was not safe 10 eat ANYTHING or to drink in
the dark
Attempts we're made to harvest the young
grasshoppers. One device was adopted ia
Morocco during a locust plague more than
century ago. 1t was to dig long trench
aud drive the grasshoppers to it. Boards
were set up on edge diverging from the
ends of the trench several rods AS the
insects came to the boards, they converged
to the brink of the ditch, and their next
movement landed them at the bottom,
They had not vet got their wings, and were
not large enough TO jump over the boards
or the trench. The loose earth was then
packed down upon the struggling mass, and
millions of graSshoppers had been destroyed.
Did it make any perceptible difference
in the numbers above ground? Not one
whit.
1t was mystery how they lived and grew
after the first wholesale destruction of
crops, but they must have found something
to eat. for many of them lived to get away
from the land which they had turned into a
waste. With an energy such as is sure to
follow every great disaster, the farmers
went to work and replanted their fields.
Corn was the principal crop. Some of it
matured, hut the greater part made only
fodder. Although there was no very wide
spread restitution as a result of the grass
hopper visitation, much financial distress on
account of it was felt for several years.
ARNOLD'S NEXT WORK
"