St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-04-20
APLAGUE THREE FEET DEEP.
The Terrible Ravages of Locusts
in Australia.

In order to check, if possible, the an
nual plague of locustS that devour the
heritage and blast the hopes of graziers,
farmers and fruit growers to a greater
or less extent in December, the govern
ment of Victoria, Australia. proclaimed
Nov. Z and holidays for scholars and
schoolmasters in the rural districts, in
order that they might cooperate with
the settlers in destroying the young To-
Gusts in the early stage of their devel-
opment 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 branches
the beds in the fields where the as
yet wingleSS creatures were known to
exist, or in narrowing the ground. or
turning tiocks of sheep upon the land,
and also by spreading straw over the
plague spot and setting fire to it. In
such ways vast destruction was done to
the armies of the young locusts in the
early stage of their existence.
1t was seen, however, says the GlaS-
gov Herald, that the rad upon the
vermin should have been made some
what earlier, as numbers were already
so tar advanced as to be on the wing on
their mission of mischief; and, besides,
the attack on them was not so generally
made as was desirable III some districts
of Victoria, while north of the 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 ho Iar 10 fol wifi
ting runs, and population Is scarce
there, thus giving the ravaging locusts
almost complete scope to propagate.
People here can hardly conceive how
serious the locust plague is in these
colonies. Recently the reports came
that these Great ureS maSsed themselves
so thickly along some of the lines of
railways that, although the air brakes
were shut down, the trains could not be
brought to stand until they had gone
half mile beyond the stations, owing
to the multtudes crushed beneath the
wheels, causing the trains to pass along
The wheels actually slid along the rails.
In many of the Northern towns the in
habitants had to close their doors to
keep out the invading 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 outlook is ominous.
In and about Barnawatha, Victoria,
the insects are spreading in SWarmS
and causing great destruction. A resi-
dent of that district reports that, in
trayersing that part of the country in
buggy, the wheels of his vehicle were
completely imbedded in masses of
young caterpillars and grasshoppers,
which OH many extensive areas GOV
cred the whole surface to depth of
about four inches. like a gigantic and
unduiating coat of green paint"
Who're the country presented any
depression it was found impossible to
pass with a buggy, and in several favor
able localities. such as low-lying lands,
etc., the insects were surging about in
masses some two or three feet deep.
The ground in their wake is quite desti-
tute of grass. Such are some of the
breeding grounds from which the fully
developed creatures take flight to waste
and destroy other parts of the country.