The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-09-23
| 0CUST PLAGUE.
Wide Areas in South America
Made Desolate by 1t.
NO REMEDY is FOUND

No REMEDY Is F0UN
Five Governments Fighting the Pc.
! Which Is Yearly Getting: W'ors
Swums OF Locusts Sixty Mil
Lons' and Ten Miles Wide.
A cable dispatch q while ago d
scrlDed now III the province
Catamarra, Argentina, many wome
| had fallen to the ground in couvu
sions of weeping and for a time wei
almost bereft Of their senses, repea
ing over and over only the words
The locusts. the locusts:" 1t We
: The third successive session in whic
| they had seen the skies darkene
! with clouds of locusts that settle
down upon their fields and plain:
destroying the crops and every YES
tige Of the vegetation on which thei
cattle and sheep subsist.
No other part of the world has i
recent years suffered from such
plague Of locusts as the agriculture
State OF sub-tropical and tenlperat
South America-Argentina. Bolivia
Southern Brazil, Paraguay an,
Uruguay share the affection
In these regions the swarms hav
been steadily Increasing for q mum
Der of years. They are supposed t.
originate in the southerly part O
the Amazon basin and in the Chaco
Of Bolivia, and of Northern Argen
tina.
They come from the north il
clouds that sometimes darken the
sun and some of the swar1ns have
been estimated to be sixty miles
long and from twelve to fifteen mile!
vide. But these billions OF flying
insects are only the foreruIners .:
he greater mischief to come
They make desolate the area il
which they settle. but often jumJ
wide areas in their flight. Before
they take to the wing they lay bill.
ions of eggs in the warm earth which
in few weeks become loppers
1t is this young, voracious brood, be.
fore it can fly, that utterly strips
the land of everything green as
though it had been burned over.
All the Governments are fighting
he evil. Two years ago the Argen.
iue Government organized a bureau
Inder the name OF defensa genera
.gricola para for the destruction o
he locust. Last year the Argentine
Congress placed s4,500,000 at tht
,isposal of this commission
Sub-commiteees represent the gen.
eral commission in every departnten
to these invasions and they
extend from the northern limit
,griculture in the republic to thf
Neukuen River, almost to Patagonia
Everything possible is done TO min
rnize the damage
4 fine of 100 pesos is imposed Up
N any settler failing to report t
he subcommittee in his distric
.he presence Of locust swarms' Or hop.
Ger eggs On his land. An organized
service embracing thousands Of me:
IL in readiness at any moment t.
send a force to any place wher'
Danger is reported. The most ei
iective war is waged against tn:
ioung hoppers.
The official report is that as man.
rs $4,000 hopper eggs have beer
counted in a space less than thre
md half feet square. a pcodiglou'
number Of the young insects ar
destroyed soon after Matching b
means of sprinkling carts filled wit:
liquids. Still many Of them escap'
and the country they cover IS to
vast to be entirely treated with tn
sDrinkling process. Fortunately RI
Young hoppers have habit that ia
.ilitates the destruction OF million
of them.
b. the time they are TWO week
old they have developed an enormou:
appetite. But they do not set or
to eat up the world III thin array Q
scattered detachments.
They collect here and there i:
compact masses to move forward o:
the food. and when an army Of hor
pers advances from one space |
another there is nothing left t
eat on the ground they have desert
ed. They cannot fly. they move 10!
ward only from 400 To 6Vu feet
dav. Now is the time to trap then?
In front OF them a trench IS dui
about six feet deep and w!d" an
100 10 200 feet lonS. From eac
end of the trench peaces OF shee
tin about scyenty-five feet long an
foot and a half high are Stuc
into the ground. forming TWO line
of fence spreading fan'iSc from IN
ends of the trench. These fence
are etended till their outer ends ar
hundreds OF feet apart. wide enoaG
to enclose the flanks OF IN" lnEac
inc army. Then all is ready Tor II
drive.
II is hot work. beginning - sl't
rise. and all the settlers and IN
Government men sent to their al
take part in it with weapons ths
are effective. though the: arc nnl
rieces OF cloth. with which they Tia
the ground and urge the hopper
forward. Very often darkness tal
and the rear guard OF the hoppe
has not Yet reached the brink o''
which they tumble TO their fate. II
honners will not stir til sunEls
and then the Tapping OF the cloth
resumed till tbs particular aEinE
euculfed. The crops and grass iii
ahcad arc safe for 4 while.