The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-19
BY CLARA COTTON.

(COpyrSnt, 1876, >. >. mcclure, LlIQlIeQ.J
1t is more <han two decades now since
the 'grass-hopper years" of 1872, '7S and
"A. and their very memory seems almost
to have disappeared from the public mind.
To those of US, however, who passed
through the visitation, which brought
complete devastation to all growing crops
in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. caus-
ing widespread suffering and restitution
and seriously affected most states west
OF the Mississippi, the memory Of those
wears is still vivid one. And during the
recent harvest months of autumn, when
news of bountiful crops, unmarried by
insect or other plaques was being re-
ceiyed, this memory became more vivid
by very contrast.
We in Missouri had heard and read of
the plague in poor doughty Kansas, V
but there was little fear felt that the in
sects would come further east, for the
papers assured US that scientists had
found the habitat of the locuStS to be
the Rocky Mountains, and study of pre-
ViouS plaques of this sort had shown
that the insects flight was regulated
by such definite limitations as TO time
and distance. that their return trip
westward was near at hand and so Mis-
souri, might congratulate herself on be-
ing not only beyond the great droughth
belt. but also east of the locust line. But
of conduct declared to be theirs. They
came. they saw, they conquered.
THE INCOMING OF THE HOPPERS.
One very hot day. was a little girl
them was sent to the postoff1ce to get
the mail. l saw the men out in front of
their stores looking up at the sun through
smoked glass and talking eXcitedly. Sud
denly there was d loud pattering like
hail on my parasol, on the pavement,
the fences, the streets, and the roofs of
the hOuses-eVeryWhere. 1t was hail
storm of graSshoppers- Looking up there
seemed to be a great, Wide-spreading,
dark cloud slowly descending. In child
ish fright / ran, but there was no es-
cape; 'hoppers to right of me, hoPpers
to left of me were flying and Jumping.
They lit on my shoes, my hat and my
dress skirts in SquadrOnS. The ground
was literally covered with the strange
unwe el!Gt9I, visitors. out OF breath from
my frightened run [ stopped to rest I'M
der a tree by neighbours back yard
where there was flock of fowls. In
watching their crazy delight over this
unexpected and unlimited feast / soon
forgot my fear. They dashed around
with outspread wings, made wild leaps
and little flights in the air, tumbling over
each other in their eagerness. They de-
voured the insects so fast as almost to
choke themselves. but kept quacking be-
tween mouthsful, as if saying:
Git all you can; keep what you git
and git a-plenty while you're a-gittin.' ="
covering into shelter. Horses were fright
ened and tried to get away from such
an unheard of shower.
These grasshoppers as we called Them
though they We're really locuStS-Were
much larger than the common insects
known by that name, and their heads
were much larger in proportion to their
bodies. Their eyes bulged out in a way
to make them seem actually to have an
impiSh expression of Countenance, as they
would turn their heads from side to
side and move their curiously split
mouths in Chewing their tobacco as
we children called the dark brown liquid
which they seemed to roll around in their
laws as cows do their cudS. The long
hind legs and outer wings were rough and
strong. The fowls, after the first raw
enous appetites were appeaSed would
try to pick these wings and the legs off
before eating the insects. The fowls be-
came thin from their continued grass
hopper diet and the yolkS of the eggs
were red. Everybody did without eggs
and fowls for food as far as possible.
THEY ATE EVERY GREEN THING
The grasshoppers preferred the rank
est tasting vegetation and so took peach
leaves. oak leaves. tomato vines, jimson
weed and rag weed first. These having
been devoured clear down to the roots
and branches (many of the trees looked
as bare as in NoVenlber), they attacked
everything green. indiscriminately. The
bare stones of the half-ripe peaches and
plums were left in pitiful grotesquesness
hanging on the trees. In flower gardens
the foliage was often eaten and the bright
flowers left on the leaf1ess stalks.
Many people did not abandon their
gardens to the ravages of the enemy
until after heroic resistance had been
We're sprinkled over the gardens. The
'hoppers seemed to thrive on the diet
Whole families would go out and beat
the ground with tree branches thus driY-
iNrr In i1cn TIC r1f IL
swarms of bees-but to see them return
with reinforcementS or added regiments.
Kerosene oil was put into Sprinkling
pots and scattered broadcast over the
Millions and then pieces of burning pa
per, or pine were thrown about. Long
bitches. three feet deep were dug and
the 'hopperS by means of broomS and
branches of trees. We're urged to hop in
into the trenches.
To see the millions thus slaughtered,
gave courage for the time to keep on
waging war, but results did not justify
the hone. for it certainly seemed as if
a hundred came to attend the funeral
of each slain comrade
They attacked the grass, after gar
dens had been eaten bare, and for some
spaces in some fields and lawns untouched
while in adjoining parts every space
of green was deVoured.
Some housewives had sad experiences
clothes drying on the lines being riddled
with holes. One lady's parlor was invaded
and when she entered the ~oom she
found the lower quarter of each of her
lace curtains lying separated from the
rest on the floor; they had been chewed
off. on line with the window sill, by
the omniverous pests.
AT night. the grasshoppers went reg
ularly to roost They chose the western
sides of fences, houses and barns where
the setting sun shone hottest and COW
cred every inch of space so one could
not tell the color of the paint underneath
Papers in the east told of the stopping
of trains by grasshoppers. Friends wrote
to inquire, thinking the whole thing
must be pure fabrication. OF course
the trains were not stopped by mounds
of insects piled up like snow banks in
front of the engine as some seemed to
think. But their quantity was so great
as to clog the engine wheels and their
crushed bodies made the rails so slippery
that trains had to go very slowly, and
sometimes had to stop until the track
ahead was cleaned off.
We hoped against hope day after day
and week after week that the insects
would take their fight. Instead of this,
they settled down to preparations for
the next season by industriously laying
their eggs in countless millions. The
females made holes about an inch and
half deep in the ground, using the
strong hind legs and the body itself as
drills for the purpose.
In each hole thus made was deposited
tough membraneous sack nearly as
large as the abdomen of the insect,
filed with rows of little white eggs like
ktx.-s