The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-01-11

plague with which the Lord afflicted
Pharaoh.
Many people believe that the situa-
tion is such that the number of locusts
will increase from year to year, and
that the country can never be free from
them. They argue this from the loca-
ton of the Argentine. 1t is, you
know, situated in the temperate zone,
with delightful climate and fairly
good soil. Just above it lies Brazil,
which is covered with tropical vegeta-
ton and vast areas of which will never
be different from what they are now.
In this country it is claimed that the
locusts have their breeding grounds.
They are produced by the millions
there every year, and as a swarm
thinks nothing of flight of 500 miles
you can see that an army starting out
from there is q dangerous enemy.
They say that the locusts breed in
Brazil and annually start out for the
south, eating up everything as they
go.
It is hard to realize what terrible
thing such an invasion is. The locusts
appear in great swarms, which often
darken the sun if they fly between
you and it. They light on every thing
green and begin eating. The branches
of the trees bend down with their
weight and you can hear the snap
ping of their jaws as they crunch the
leaves. They often eat the flesh from
the fruit, leaving the stones of the
peaches hanging to the bare branches.
They will clean the crops from the
fields, eating the grain down to the
ground. Sometimes they will take
the green wheat from one side Of the
road and pass by that on the other,
and they sometimes fly on and on for
days over rich fields to feed on those
beyond The next swarm may eat
that which is left.
This pest Of the locust has been 50
great that the Argentine Government
has been spending large sums of money
to get rid of them. Among other things,
they have sent to the United States
for Professor Lawrence Bruner, of the
University of Nebraska, to Investigate
the subject and to give them advice.
The Argentine locusts look very
much like grasshoppers. They are
very prolific, and the greatest damage
is caused not by those which come in
swarms. but by the young locusts
which follow. As the locusts move
over the country they lay their eggs
in the ground. Each female locust
makes hole in the ground and lays
about 100 eggs, and month or SO
later these turn into 100 young locusts,
who crawl out and begin their march
over the country. Their parents have
pretty well cleaned up the crop. The
babies start out to eat what has grown
up in the meanwhile. They cannot fly
far at first. and they crawl along, eat
ing up everything as they 60. They
cover the ground, crawl over the fences
and sweep the country OF everything
green.
. In afew weeks they grow wings and
then fly onward to other feeding
grounds. No conception ,an be formed
of the enormous numbers of these To-
Gusts. In one year sixteen tons of
eggs were destroyed in one place.
Billions of eggs are now being dug
out of the ground and crushed, and
to-day the Argentine farmers are fight.
ing for their life with the locusts.
The methods for exterminating them
are many and costly. Thousands of
dollars are spent every year to kill
them. At the time of an invasion all
the farmers must turn out and destroy
them. They are caught in traps Of
corrugated iron. They ere scooped
up with scrapers and killed; poisons