Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-06-08
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GRAssHoPPERs IN CHINA.

So Numerous That Soldiers Have Been Or
dered Out to Fight Them.
The great province of Kiang-Soo is be-
ing devastated by locusts. Consul Jones
at 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-
tons offered to the Kansas people when
they were suffering from a similar visi-
tation some years ago.
II 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 a
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 a 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
little distance they suggest the idea
Of a swarm of black ants seized with
sudden insanity, In shape they are ex-
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 a month
they are full grown.
The destruction by suitable measures
Of this formidable pest, involving as it
does the prevention Of famine, fever cpl
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-
er that the visitation of the locusts is a
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,
as against an adverse army in the field.
Instead of gun or q lance, however,
each soldier is armed with coarse hemp
en- bag, attached to a bamboo pole, which,
with wide open mouth, is waved back
4 and forth among the swarms until filled,
when they are killed, and the action re-
newed.
"In this section of the province, )" writes
Mr.. Jones, 1.-The army has taken the field,
and the district magistrate has taken up
his quarters in the country where the 10
Gusts are thickest to overlook the work
of destruction and to pay the farmers
the bounty.
1.-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.