Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-01-17

| With Them as in a Snow storm
A Ravenous Army-The Choicest
Fields Go First.
1t was a memorable summer, indeed,
to the poor farmer. But the worst of
his ills was not yet upon him. The
spring had been full Of promise. The
wheat, which had been cut before the
hail came, was the best we had ever
had. The whole spring until July had
been moist and propitious and full OF
promise. But with that terrible hail
storm began disaster, and disaster
piled on disaster until it seemed that
there would be literally nothing left
I To eat or wear or even think upon in
nope. The last of the great disasters
was the coming of the grasshoppers.
Up to that time grasshoppers had
never been seen or known Oh the
plains. We had not even heard Of
/ them or their coming. 1t was we'll OIL
| in August, and the drouth had done
] lis worst to the corn. 1t was hot,
! su,try day, as parched and dry as all
! the days before The sky was clear
i but for the usual haze that never left
it. the haze Of wearing heat. About
noon my father came up from the
j field and summoned us to see some
thing that looked like snow. The air
about the sun seemed filed with SNOW
tiailes, thick, innumerable, and fitting
rapidly as snowfiakes do. But snow
! Takes and the clear atmosphere and
the hot day were quite Incompatible
things. They could not be snow1akes;
but what else could they be? We
racked our brains in vain to imagine.
Perhaps it was some kind of Il cyclone
which had lifted leaves and dust and
other such things into the air. But
/ There were no signs of that; and
very one Of the snowfiakeS was OF
y regular size, with no such irregular
ity as sticks and branches and leaves
carried into the air would present.
We ate dinner in puzzled uncertainty
as to what was hanging over us. But
two hours later 1t was painfully ap-
parent what the snowtiakes in the
sun really were. They We're full
grown grasshoppers. BY o'clock the
grasshoppers We're with us. They
were not IA few thousand insects, mis-
cradle little pests! tiitting about in
the air and getting into your face
/ when you were out-of doors. They
were millions upon millions. The trees
became brown with them. They COW
cred the corn rs some insects will lit
Nv vi,
/ times. They were hungry, too, and
began to eat. Leaves, cornStalkS, the
bark Of trees anything and everything
was needed to fill this ravenous army
that had fallen upon us from heaven.
One went outdoors and stepped on
scores at each stride. They crawled
up your trousers leg, and under wom-
ems skirts. They made holes in the
cloth hy-netting and came into the
house. They pumped hard into your
face with little whaclling sting
wherever you went or did not go.
Everything seemed alive with them.
i | was young then, and was filled
+, imply with curious wonder, But
~ | think of 1t now, | am sure my
!
powered with Encouragement when
he saw what the grasshopperS really
meant. He saw on the first day that
they had alight"d to get square
meal and certainly meant to have IL
But day after day they fingered and
new tcrrorS developed In them. They
! bad alghted to lay their eggs. The
| M II tn, ha ,tln
TO please them for this purpose, and
each day you might see grasshoppers,
an inch and half or two inches long,
boring their tails into the ground until
i only their heads remained above,
There they would stay from morning
! until night and then go away. If You
examined this earth nest when the
bird had flown, YOU would find soft,
, silky cocoon filled with innumerable
small, pulpy eggs which meant a
whole crop of grasshoppers the fol.
a lowing spring.
Another popularity which these pests
had was that they would hop about
from field to field. They evidently Sc
lectcd the choicest food first, and when
that was gone tackled the less APP
petizing. Some farmers thought they
were going to escape measurably. but
the thought was vain. The grasshop-
pcrs stayed several weeks, and dur
Ing that time they went through pretty
much everything. They were fright
fully thorough beasts Little but
stalks and stems We're left when they
had done With corn or trees or vines
or shrubs.
But some day they would 80, and
some day 1t would rain, and during
that terrible visit Of the grasshoppers
we did little but pray for the coming
Of the end "If they should 60 away
pretty soon, and II 1t should rain, the
corn might come out again and We
would get something" said my father.
But as day after day passed, hope
faded little by little. The crops for
that year We're practically ruined. and