The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-19
GRAssHoPPERs SURE THIS TIME.
Great Swaru1s Of the Erisky Insects Have
Descended Upon Colorado.

Denver, Colo, July 1S.-The hoppers
are here. Thousands Of them. Since
than that; barrelsful of them. Since
Saturday they have eaten up hun
dred crates of currants in a patch on
South Broadway and are now looking
for more. David Brothers, the veteran
fruit grower of this state, is catching
five barrels day off a strip of land at
Wheat Ridge only so feet long and 80
feet wide. Next door to him, Mr.
Brothers says, there is an alfalfa patch
that is fairly swarming. Folks are be-
ginning TO think about '76 again, and the
hoppers they had in those days, but 1t
no use talking about them. These are
a different breed entirely. Mr.. Shute,
the secretary Of the state Horticulture
al board. says that the Seventy-sixers
used to give a jump and skim away five
or six hundred yards through the air.
using thier wing to fly with. The new
crop of hopperS are just ordinary
grasshoppers that make from five to
twenty feet at jump, then eat all
around them for few inches and jump
another time.
Fruit men are in no little anxiety re-
garding the presence Of the grasshop-
pers and have appealed to the state
horticultural board for relief. There
are only two known reliefs from the
grasshopper plague. One is a dispen-
satiOn of providence which would wipe
them off the face of the earth, and the
other is to kill them.
THE OFFICIAL REMEDY.
Secretary Shute has issued the fol-
lowing bulletin to horticulturists, bear
ing upon the plague:
Grasshoppers; remedy-Have thin
sheet iron pan made II feet wide and )
feet long. and three inches deep,
mount this on runners four inches high,
about. Pour in it a mixture of four
parts Of water and one part crude pet
rolum; then hitch horses to it and drive
broadside on, across your fields and
gardens. When pan is filled with
grasshoppers remove them, put into
piles and either bury or burn The oil
and water will last all day. The whole
affair will cost 1855.
The presumption is that grasshoppers
have no more sense than TO jump into
this pan and deliberately commit sui
eide. Mr.. Brothers has such an affair
now at work on his farm and he told
the secretary of the horticultural board
that he is gathering in five barrelsfull
of the pesky varmints day. There
are always five barrelsfull more await
ing for him the next day.
\ commission man reported to the
secretary that he had on Saturday
made a contract with a South Broad
Ndy LOT lup crates Oh currents
to be delivered as SOM as ready. On
Saturday the currrants were all on the
bushes, but yesterday, when his wag-
ons went to the garden, there was not
hatful in the whole patch. The hop
pers had taken the whole works, cur
rants, leaves and were all over the
place. Residents complain that in that
section, bounded by First and Fourth
avenues and Broadway and Sherman
avenue. the hopperS are devastating
every bit of heritage.
NICHOLS HOPPER DOZER.
As the secretary of the agricultural
board has said, there is no remedy for
the plague than for every man to be
his own hopper eXterminator. There
is no appropriation available to under
take any general work of riding the
country Of the hoppers. 1t was one of
the most thrilling experiences of his
life which eX-Lieutenant Governor
Nichols used to tell about, when he
marched for days at a time over his
farm with hopper doZer" The sage
of Boulder county used to drag a piece
of sheet iron all over his farm which
was smeared with coal tar. Once they
set foot on his ''dozer" and the hop
pers were undone. Nothing but a mir
acle could possibly release them, and
IS miracles do not occur in this matter
ot-fact age none of them escaped Mr..
Brothers says that his petroleum is a
much better scheme, as it is more cas-
lily prepared, quite as effectual and is
more easily handled. The petroleum
merely floats upon the water
which is poured into the pan, and whea-
Their the grasshopper jumps out or not.
when once he has filled his greedy nav
with as much as d sniff of the oil, he is
as good as dead.