The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-03

days travel to the big, bold, ferocious
ones which measured three or four
Inches in length, who fought the birds
and refused to be made meal Of by
With the advent of this hungry horde
came trouble for the farmers, the hop
pers would light on a field or orchard
and before twenty-four hours had
elapsed the destruction was generally
completed. Numerous plans we're de-
Vised by the farmers to save their
crops. Poison was used freely but this
did not prove a. success ans. was dan
gerous as well as expensive. Crude
catchers were made, by building low
trough like contrivances which were
partially filled with water and were
hauled across the fields by horses, the
hoppers rising in droves at the ap-
proach of this strange contraption
would strike a sheet and fall into this
trough of water which had a thin
coating of coal oil. A dipping of this
kind was more than a match for the
most hardy hopper and even though
specimen and managed to wade out, it
was all over with him as Just the
smallest particle of oil seems to be
fatal to a hopper.
This mode of battle was in a way
successful as thousands upon thou
sands of bushels of hoppers were
caught and slain in this manner. The
stencil arising from the decaying
bodies of the hoDpers became nearly
unbearable, even though great many
of them were buried. There was an
objection to burying them, however,
for after they had become thoroughly
dried they were stored away in caves
and used as a breakfast food for the
chickens during the cold winter
months when food was scarce.
Henry Grow. one of the old timers
of F1nney county, has for years har-
vested his crop of hoppers just as he
harvests his beets and alfalfa, storing
the hOpperS away in sacks in his cave
and feeding them during the storms of
winter to his chickens, for as an egg
producer there is nothing that beats
embalmed hoppers.
Mr.. l. L. Diesem, one of the pioneer
farmers of the Arkansas valley has a
fine farm near Garden City which suf-
fered severely from the ravages of the
grasshopperS and he says that he is
convinced that there is but one way to
battle the pests and that the way is
with turkeys and chickens. Each year
Mrs. Diesem raises from a hundred to
five hundred fowls which are permitted
to run at large and the farm is kept
clear of hoppers in that way. This is
the real secret of why Mr.. Diesem's
pumpkins are the largest, why his vege-
tables are the best, why his grains al
ways grade the highest and why the
blue ribbons are so often hung upon
the products of his farm. Mr.. Diesem
estimates that 100 turkeys will take
care of 25 acres of alfalfa and stop the
ravages of grasshoppers.
But" continued the Garden City
resident who gave the information,
this is not the story of the new in
dustry that I started to tell; noting the
fondness of the fowls for the faoppers
Dennis Doty conceived the idea of turn
ing the hoppers into a marketable COM
modify, and with this in view bought
100 young turkeys and turned them
loose on his farm. The scheme worked
like a charm, not only were his crops
saved but the turkeys matured amaz-
ingly and fattened as nothing else would
fatten them. Encouraged by his ven.
ture Mr.. Doty has each year handled
more turkeys than the previous wear
until last year he had a bunch of about
1000 that required the constant atten-
ton Of one man as a herder. This
drove was herded about over the nei1E-
boring farms, the farmers being glad IN
pay for the services of the flock to have
their farms ridden of the transformers
Now nearly every farmer in tht,
western section of the state has from a
dozen to 100 turkeys and the grasshop-
pers are thinning out The turkeys
are run on the grasshopper pasture far
about ninety days just as the feelers
fatten their sheep or steers, then bv
feeding them corn and mixed grain for
q couple of weeks they are ready for
The market and 1t is said that the hop