Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-05-16
&E,gs'lldRll|Rigg5 De-!
eRAssHoPpsRs IN CHINA.
So Numerous That Soldiers Have 13een Or
dered Out 60 Fight <nem.

dered Out Go Fight Snen.
The great province Of Kiang-Soo Is be-
ing devastated by locusts. Consul Jones
ut Chin-Kiang, sends the state depart
ment an account of the curious efforts
made by the afflicted sections to dispel
the scourge. Some Of the methods re-
sorted to are as striking as the sugges-
tions offered 70 the Kansas people when
they were suffering from a similar visi-
tation some years ago.
III know of few sights" writes the
consul, ''more extraordinary than a
swarm engaged in pairing. The air is
filled with clouds of locusts drifting.
circling, crossing and recrossing, with
faint, whirring noise, and settling ON the
ground in thousands Of couples The
ground is carpeted thickly with them.
You cannot make step without crunch
ing heaps of them under your feet, while
thousands more start up in pattering
volleys against your legs, hands and
face"
The eggs are deposited in holes drilled
by the female an inch or more deep in
the ground. The time required for
Matching depends entirely on the tenn
perature. In very hot weather the new
brood begins to make its appearance at
the end of q week. At this stage they
are very small, black and as active as
fleas, making extraordinary bounds by
means Of their muscular hind legs. At
q little distance they suggest the idea
of swarm of black ants seized with
or,A ,AIovn fv,oov,tfx, tn choy,o thor, ov nv
act copies Of their parents, save for
the wings. They are greedy feeders and
grow rapidly. By the eighth or ninth
day wings have budded, and the color be-
gins to change, yellow spots appearing,
and in about three weeks or month
they are full grown.
The destruction by suitable measures
of this formidable pest, involving as it
does the prevention CT famine, fever epi-
denies and riots, is matter of grave
public concern. One constantly hears
of mandarins losing their buttons and
being disgraced as the penalty of remiss-
ness or failure to destroy the enemy.
Consul Jones says the Chinese consid-
or that the visitation Of the locusts is
calamity from heaven, and that there
Is no help for it," Chinese records chron-
icle many instances of the appearance
and the calamities inflicted by the 10
Gusts in former times, but they have no
peculiarly effective methods Of destroy
ing them. The government usually is
sues proclamations ordering out the SOL
diers and encouraging the farmers to
destroy them. The latter are given a
bounty for their destruction.
. The soldiers are used against the To-
Gusts, with their officers at their head,
az against an adverse army in the field
Instead Of gun or lance, however,
each soldier is armed with coarse hemp
en- bag, attached to bamboopole, which,
with wide open mouth, is waved back
and forth among the swarms until filed,
when they are killed, and the action re-
newed.
''In this section Of the province" writes
Mr.. Jones, "the army has taken the field,
and the district magistrate has taken mp
his quarters in the country where the To-
Gusts are thickest to overlook the work
of destruction and to pay the farmers
the bounty.
"The farmers use large brooms made
Of bamboo twigs and other bushes, and
each armed with this weapon goes forth
to slaughter. When killed and collected,
they are paid for by weight, which is at
the rate of 40 cash, or cents, per pound.
The locusts' eggs are dug up and paid
for on a similar scale. ."-Washington
Letter.