The St. Johns herald., 1893-07-20
LOCUSTS IN CHINA.
They Are Regarded as Q Calamity
 from Heaven.
The Singular Methods Adopted by the Celestials for Exterrninating the Pests A Queer Occupation for
 Soldiers.

China, is being devastated by locusts. Consul Jones at Chin-Kiang sends the state department an account of the curious efforts made by the afflicted sections to dispel the scourge, says Washington correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Some of the methods resorted to are as striking as the suggestions offered to the Kansas people when they were suffering from a similar visitation some years ago. When the locusts make their appear ance in one of these Chinese districts there is consternation among the un- fortunate peasantry, who assemble in the fields with wild clamor and din of gongs, armed with long bamboOs with streamers attached, and vainly en- deavor to drive off the terrible in vaders who are settling down in myr- iads and devour;ng their crops before their eyes. Every leaf and twig is covered thick, giving the appearance of some hideous yellow fruit or plant. 4 faint, sour smell, like that of fer menting vegetable matter, is always pcrceptible in the neighborhood. It comes, TO doubt, from the droppings of the insects.
 There is a curious and widespread belief among the Chinese in the exist ence Of a king" locust-''wang' he is called-of colossal size and quasi supernatural character, who hovers in- visibly in the upper regions of the air, directing and controlling the migra- z T ,Ar \ places the leading officials have pub hcly sacrificed and made offerings to the king of the locu5ts in order that he might be influenced to spare their To- calities.
 q 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, whirling noise, and settling on the ground in thousands of couples. The ground is carpeted thiclzly with them: you cannot take a step without crunching 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 temperature. In very hot weather the new brood begins to make it's appear ancc at the end of a week. At this stage they are very small, black, and as active as fleas, making extraordi- nary bounds by means of their 1nuscu- lar hind legs. At little distance they suggest the idea of swarm of black ants seized with sudden insanity. In shape they are exact copies of their parents, save for the want of wings. They are greedy feeders and grow rap idly. By the eighth or ninth day wings have budded and the color be- gins to change, yellow spots appear ing, and in about a month they are full grown.
 The destruction, by suitable meas ures, Of this formidable pest, involving, as it does, the prevention of famines, fever epidemics and riots, is matter of grave public concern. One con- stantly hears of mandarins losing their buttons and being disgraced as the penalty of remissness or failure to destroy the enemy.
 Consul Jones says the Chinese con- sider that the visitation of the locusts is calamity from Heaven, and that there is no help for it." Chinese rec ords chronicle many instances of the appearance and the calamities inflicted by locustS in former times, but they have no peculiarly effective methods of destroying them. The government usually issues proclamations ordering out the soldiers and encouraging the farmers to destroy them. The latter are given a bounty for their destruc- tion.
 The soldiers, with their officers at their head, are used against the To- custs as against an adverse army in the field. Instead of gun or lance, however, each soldier is armed with coarse hempen bag attached to bam- boo pole, which, with wide-open mouth, is waved back and forth among the swarrns until filled, when they are killed and the action renewed.
 Sailors SuperstitiOns.