The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1899-01-11

gentine is fully as bad as the locus
plague with which the Lord afflicted
Pharaoh.
Many people believe that the situa
tion is such that the number of locust
will increase from year to year, an{
that the country can never be free froh
them. They argue this from the loca
tion of the Argentine. 1t is, yoJ
know, situated in the temperate zone
with a delightful climate and fairly
good soil. Just above it lies Brazil
which is covered with tropical vegeta
tion and vast areas Of which will neve
be different from what they are nowl
In this country it is claimed that th<
loousts have their breeding grounds
They are produced by the million0
there every year, and as q swarm
thinks nothing of flight of 500 mile
you can see that an army starting on
from there is dangerous enemy
They say that the locusts breed
Brazil and annually start out for IN
south, eating up everything as the!
go.
It is hard to realize what q terrible.
thing such an invasion is. The locusts
appear in great swarms, which otter
darken the sun if they fly betweeI
you and it, They light on every thin
green and begin eating. The branche
of the trees bend down with thei
weight and you can hear the snap
ping of their Jaws as they crunch thu
leaves. They often eat the flesh from
the fruit, leaving the stones of tn
peaches hanging to the bare branches
They will clean the crops from tn
fields, eating the grain down to til
ground. Sometimes they will tax
the green wheat from one side of tht
road and pass by that ON the other
and they sometimes fly on and on TO
days over rich fields to feed on thos
beyond. The next swarm may ed
that which is left.
This pest Of the locust has been s
great that the Argentine Government
has been spending large sums of none
to get rid of them. Among other things
they have sent to the United State
for Professor Lawrence Bruner, of tn
University of Nebraska, to investigat.
the subject and to give them advice.
The Argentine locusts look ver.
much like grasshoppers. They ar
very prolific, and the greatest damagv
is caused not by those which come i
! swarms, but by the young locust
which follow. As the locusts NOV
over the country they lay their ego
in the ground. Each female locus
makes q hole in the ground and lay
about 100 eggs, and a month or s
later these turn into 100 young locustsI
who crawl out and begin their marcA
over the country. Their parents hav}
pretty well cleaned up the crop. Th(
babies start out to eat what has grAn
up in the meanwhile. They canX
far at first, and they crawl alol
ing up everything as they go!
cover the ground, crawl over til
and sweep the country of eveI
green.
In afew weeks they grow W
then fly onward to other
grounds. No conception can u
of the enormous numbers of
Gusts. In one year sixteen
eggs were destroyed in one
Billions of eggs are now beinA
out OF the ground and crushed, aoV
to-day the Argentine farmers are fight
ing for their life with the locusts.
The methods for exterminating then
are many and costly. Thousands q
dollars are spent every year to xii
them. At the time of an invasion al
the farmers must turn out and destroI
them. They are caught in traps d
corrugated iron. They are scoopel
up with scrapers and killed; poison|