The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-15
MAY Be THE PLAGUE.
Reports That the Present Year MAY
Witness a Disastrous Grass
hopper Visitation.
The Period Has Arrived for An
other Coming of the Seven
teen-Year Locusts.
Colorado's Experience In 1S7A Recalled
They Do Not Cross tho Snowy Ranges
and Montana Is Safe.

Will the United States be visited by an
pther grasshopper plague? asks the Denve
News.
1t begins to look very much that way
For two weeks past the telegraph dispatches
have told from day to day of large numbers
of young g~rasshoppers being seen in various
parts of the west. A week ago it was in
North Dakota chat the farmer was getting
scared to death. Then it was in the west.
ern part of Kansas and Nebraska. Now
come reports from the eastern borders OF
Colorado that young grasshoppers are prao-
ticing long jumping preparatory to the
summer campaign. The reports may be ex-
aggerated, but if they are half truth there
is every reason to fear that the scourge will
do some damage. The papers published in
small country towns in the hopper country
are taking a very serious view of the matter.
and as they have daily opportunities of see
ing the 'varmint' in his lair they are like
ly to be pretty nearly right.
1t is seventeen years ago this summer
since the west had the last great visitation
from this scourge.
iFCiybOAy Ads - II SboLiSS AoaA Y
the old inhabitant of ''the eventesn-year
locusts.' Their time is up, and though
they have occasionally failed to appear
promptly at the scheduled period, their
record, az a whole, is one of promptitude,
and it is very probable they are now about
to make their regular appearance. The
seventeen-year locusts ara declared by eX-
perts to be near relatives of those which
made things unpleasant for Pharaoh. and
to nave far more room in their inside than
the ordinary grasshopper, though the latter
is able to eat almost as much rs a healthy
COW. The seventeen-year locust is a bad
lot, and if he is about to pay a visit it will
not be long until people know that he is
around.
There are perfectly we'll authenticated
stories of swarms OF grasshoppers stopping
railroad trains. Many persons in Denver
have seen these things themselves, and
who was a railway nglne in Kansas and
didn't get anything to eat for two days be-
cause it was an utter impossibility to move
the train until the section crew laboriously
shoveled a way for it to get out of the mass
of dead insects. That year there was an
produce an ounce Of crop. The plague
practically ruined thousands of farmers
who were just beginning to establish them
selves upon the virgin p~rairies.
In Colorado the damage during 1874 was
fully as bad as in Kansas, in proportion to
the much smaller acreage of titled land.
The crops were excellent before the pppear-
ance of the hoppers, but not a blade was
left a few moments after the swarm landed.
Old-timers we'll recollect the devastation,
but there are many thousands of people in
Denver who never saw a businesslike con
vention of grasshoppers at work, and can
form little idea Of what it means wnen
they hear that the pest is approaching.
On a bright summer day you are perhaps
resting by the we'll at nocnday. The CON
tented horses are lazily switching the flies
from their TANKS in the shade. In all di-
r%ections around extends vour farm. The
crops are coming up well. They look green.
There has been plenty of water and the
bitches are still running fall. There is no
cause for fear. OF course you have heard
of grasshoppegs in Kansas or somewhere,
but that doesn't concern you.
Far away You see q cloud rise. 1t comes
up rapidly. You hear a rustic as of wind
through trees. The swarm comes on and
YOU can almost distinguish individuals.
They look like millions of grains of sand
against the sky. They nav slight and they
may pass by. The chances are a hundred
to one against you. If the van alights
those behind will pass on like a wave COM
ing on a beach or the same as if
you took a roll of carpet and sud
denly spread it out. Ii the front
ranks pass by the rear Of the great army
will settle down. When they 60 away your
crops will have gone also. Not a blade of
grass. not a veBtige of any kind of vegeta-
ton will be left. Fields, verdant with way
ing grain in fifteen minutes seem to have
been just plowed. These things nave been
seen right here in the fertile valleys Of
Colorado. An army with or without ban
ners is not in the same class with hoppers
as a destructive agent, the army may crush
and trample down but the locusts fight with
one another, and tumble over one another
for the privilege Of utterly devouring.
Should the plague visit Denver there will
not be a leaf left On the tens of thousands
shade trees in the streets, nor a patch of
grass on tho lawns. The CITY will look
something as though it had been struck by
lightning. In 1874 Denver was a great deal
smaller than it is now. Tailors and dry
goods merchants in those days displayed
their wares at their doors. So yoracious
were the grasshoppers that the goods had to
be carried inside. Holes were actually
eaten In woolen cloth.
But there is one comfort about the COM
ing of the wretehed little winged repro
bates to Colorado. The range does them
up. They can't cross it. The cold at the
highest attitudes of the great divide nips
their wings and they fall helpless to per
lsh. Seventeen years ago the snow banks
on the sides of the great peaks wers black
with DEAD grasshoppers, No record APP
pDoto Va thcih having iedCAeu tle western
slope. At the same time if it is just as con-
venient for the Messrs. Hopper, Colorado,
would prefer if they would 90 off and
drown themselves in the gulf of Mexico or
starve gently to death on q liberal diet of
ermon marble.
Another visitation came in 1875, but it
was not so severe as that of the previous
yea1.
VALUE OF A GOOD NAME.