The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1902-08-20
MILLIONS OF THEM
Grain Now Beyond Their Reach
Alfred Bicknell's Grasshoppers.

Grain Now Beyond Their Reach
Alfred Bicknell's Grasshoppers.
Alfred Bicknel1, whose fine oats
field was attacked recently by mil
lions of grasshoppers and partially
destroyed, was in town Monday.
The havoc wrought by the hop
pers was very swift. They first
appeared on the grain on Tuesday
or Wednesday of last week. They
worked with such energy and their
numbers were SO great that in two
Or three days large section of the
field had been reduced to the con-
dition described in Saturdays
TIMES. Many of the heads were
stripped entirely of grain, the kern
els being bitten off and dropped to
the ground below. Others of the
heads had one, two, three or half
a dozen grains left.
j To save his grain Mr. ,Bicknell
hurried into the field with his
binder and cut the crop. He rea-
soned that as soon as it was cut,
the oats would promptly dry, and
that thereafter the hoppers would
cease to prey on it. His conclusion
proved correct and after the grain
was cut on Friday, the pests let it
alone.
Off Of the six acres, Mr. Bicknell
hopes now to get an average of 80
bushels or more per acre. Last year
the average from the field was 81
bushels per acre, and the crop this
year was equally good. His pres
ent estimate, compared with last
years crop, shows what destruction
the hoppers wrought in three or
four brief days.
Mr. Bicknel1 says that if the hop
pers had attacked his oats week
earlier, the only way to have saved
a remnant of the crop would have
been 10 cut it for hay. He says
also that if he had not cut the
grain at the time he did, in an
other two or three days there
would have been none to cut.
AS they worked, two or three of
the hoppers appeared on the grain
head. The field is on Kesee Creek
and it was along the stream that
the pests were most numerous, and
did the most of their work. In
passing around this portion of the
field with his binder, the hoppers
were SO thick that it was difficult
for Mr. Bickne1l to make his team
go. The sight of the strange in
sects hopping and flying about
frightened the horses, and it was
only by application of the lash that
the driver could make them pass
through the horde of hungry
pests.
On the other side of the stream
there isa fine oats field, butfor some
reason or another, the hoppers did
notattack it in sufficient numbers
to DO damage. The willow bushes
along the stream are alive with the
pests, and the trees are being strip
ped bare ofall foliage.
A peculiar manifestation appears
in slashing that Mr. Bickne11 has in
the vicinity. In this s1ashing there
is an abundance of bull thistles.
On these thist1es in the evening
the hoppers appear by thousands,
They do not attack the plants, but
seem to collect there to roost over
the night. Mr. Bickne11's regret is
that they love oats more and thist1es
less.
Mr. Bickne11 does not know where
he hoppers came from. No TN
usual number had been seen prior
% the morning when they were
1rst noticed by thousands feeding
On his grain. They have remained
n the vicinity ever since first seen,
With no apparent intention of mi
grating. In size they are medium,
| portion having wings and the
others being wing1ess.. The latter
S due to lack of age, as according
o the scientists, all hoppers have
wings sooner, or later in this life.
T11ora &c n oo,,froot ~aoJ,, &o ~ Ia -