Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-05-13


Insects.
In order to check, if possible. the an
nual plague of locusts that devour the
herbagc and blast the hopes of gra-
zicrs, farmers and fruit-growers to q
greater or less extent in December,
says the Glasgow Herald, the govern
ment of Victoria, Australia, proclaimed
November and holidays for scholars
and schoolmastcrs in the rural districts,
in order that they might cooperate
with the settlers in destroying the
young locusts in the early stages of their
development, before they have been
equipped with wings, enabling them to
take flight over the country to begin
their work of devastation.
With this end in view preparations
were made IN numerous parts of the in
terror to destroy the pest in various
ways, such as by beating with branch
es the beds in the fields where the as
yet wingless creatures were known to
exist, or narrowing the ground, or
turning focks of sheep upon the land,
and also by spreading straw over the
plague spots and setting fire to it. In
such wa 5 vast destruction was done to
the armies of the young locusts in the
early stage of their existence.
1t was seen, however, that the raid
upon the vermin should have been
made somewhat earlier, as numbers
were already so far advanced as to be
on the wing on their mission of
mischief, and besides, the attack upon
them was not SO generally made as was
desirable in some districts of Victoria,
while north of Murray comparatively
little effort was put forth to cope with
the evil, owing to the fact that on the
New South Wales and South Australian
side of the Murray the bulk of the land
Is taken up with large squatting runs,
and population is sparse there, thus
giving the ravaging locusts almost com
pletc scope to propagate.
People here can hardly conceive how
serious the locust plague is in these
colonies. Recently the reports came
that these creatures massed themselves
so thicllly along some of the lines of
railways that, although the brakes
were shut down, the trains could not
be brought to stand until they had
gone half a mile beyond the station,
owing to the multitudes crushed
beneath the wheels, causing the trains
to pass along as if the rails were
covered with oil. The wheels actually
slid along the rails. In many of the
northern towns the inhabitants had to
close their doors to keep out the invad
ing hosts. The plague has now fairly
begun work. In the southern parts of
New South Wales and some of the
northern portions of Victoria the out
look is ominouS.
In and around Branawatha (Victoria)
the insects are spreading in Swarms
and causing great destruction. A resi-
dent of that district reports that in
traversing that part of the country in a
buggy the wheels OF his vehicle were
completely imbedded in masses of
young caterpillars and grasshoppcrs,
which on many extensive areas
covered the whole surface to depth
of about four inches, Ike gigantic
and undulating coat of green paint"
Where the country presented any de-
preston it was found impossible to pass
with buggy, and in several favorable
localities, such as lowlying lands etc.,
the insects were surging about in
masses some two or three feet deep.
The ground in their wake is quito desti-
tute of grass. Such arc some of the
breeding grounds from which the fully
developed creatures take flight to
waste and destroy other parts of the
country.
In the Rutherglcn district tVictoria)
tho locusts are doing great damage, cat
ing up the grass and invading the ex-
tcnsive vineyards. One vineyard own
or there having ten ncres of vines re-
ports his entire crop as spoiled. The
grapes are not yet fully formed, but the
locusts arc busy stripping the leaves
and ringing the punches, the result be,
ting that these wither and die. SO dense
arc the insects that work has to be sus-
pended, rs the horses will not face
them. Reports como from the Albury
district that tho locusts arc attacking
thc flags on tho wheat stalks, and ir
somc instances the wheat heads have
boon eaten off. One report states that
I'm tho locality of Walbundrio, about