The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1909-09-18
PLAGUE OF INSECTS
WAS SEVERE
PIONEER TELLS OF GRASSHoP-
PER INVASION OF MONTANA
MANY YEARS AGO.

of grasshoppers all over Montana this
season the following account of the
destructive 4rasshupper invasion that
occurred i'm Montana 80 years ago, told
To the Dawson County Review by an
oldt timer, and published In that paper.
il interesting. He tells the story as
follows:
To be exact about II, the farmers
lost their crops in two seasons. 1876
and 1877. and 1t was the grasshoppers
which took them. Truly, 1t was a year
Of plague and misfortune, and the
only lands that escaped were the graz
ing lands. and these resisted des-
truction only for the reason that the
grass cured early that year, and the
hoppers preferred the greener stuff
along the creek beds and in the
meadows and cultivated lands.
Brave Bunch.
But there was a brave old bunch
Of farmers i'm Muntana's valleys at
that time. They did not make any
hOller for government relief but they
sought other means OF making liVeii-
hood. The wives stayed on the farms
and conducted dairfes and maue butter
and sold ii in the mining camps.
Thanks tn the fact that potatoes grew
underground. the crop of this vegetable
was pretty good one. and turnips and
rutabagas also made pretty 20 ID show
ings, although the hoppers. wherever
they found turnip or rutahaga ex-
posed to the surface. generally bur-
rowed down and took i'm the entire
vegetable. During both Of these years
1t was necessary to bring i'm from
Utah and other states to the south
every pound of flour that Was used in
tho TERRITORY. The lowest price mt
which flour couh lie obtained was 81
per hundred, and then it was "A crude
sort Of product. but always eaten
with pleasure. Hay was scarcely to be
obtained at any price, and the livery
stables had to depend upon the bunch
grass OF the foothills to supply their
demands. There were few ranchmen
in the entire state who had "A stack
OF hay big enough to keep a saddle
horse alive during the winter months,
for the hoppers came early and made
a clean sweep. The range then was
not overstocked, and there were few
sheep In the territory. The livestock
survived the plague of the hopper. for
there was bunch grass everywhere.
Unheraided.
And how those grasshoppers worked
things 1t seemed as III they moved I'm
battalianS and under a commander. If
| remember correctly, ii vas the, Cal
latin valley that first reported their
appearance. Their arrival was not
herafdet. Tire nfonths was JUNG 1s-ys'
when people Mere Worried over tina
actions of the Sioux Indians in the
Yellowstone valley. Many IF tire,
ranchmen We're on the edge of ciyilIza-
ton, as 1T We're, hanging on by their
finger nails in the hope of making n
success of their ranches, and, fearing
nm invasion of Indians, for the reports
were most alarming.
i "one day. without warning. the blow
game. When the settlers got up i'm the
morning the sun arose I'm the midst of
some strange nature. Old Sol would
scarcely cast n shadow, and the Gu.
rious people who looked at the Sky to
see what was the cause of the trou-
BILE could see nothing but a cloud of
insects scattered in the air, there
seeming To be millions of them. With
in little while they descended upon
the green fields of Gallatin, and with
in few days a crop which promised to
be worth thousands of dollars would
be gone and in It's place would appear
a brown mass of huppers looking for
another crop to destroy.
Ruin Country.
1t was this way throughout the en-
tire valley, and when the invasion of
the honpers was over there was Moth
ing left save ruined fields and mead
ews. The horpers then emigrated.
They swarmed over to the next fertile
field and devastated it, and continued
their attack upon every fertile valley
In the state, wrecking sne after an
other. In every place they left their
eggs behind them. which meant an
army 81 devastation another year The
damage done in these two years of the
srasshoprer plague is incalcutahle. As
IL II, | can trnthfuity say that there
was scarcely crop raised In the en-
tire territory in the area visited by the
hnppers. The insects swept everything
before them. and the settlers took the
happening rs ii matter of course. and
made no big holler about it. Today
some of those farmers who did not
have a dollar after the hoppers visited
his ranch. can write his check for
100000 and ii will he honored They
had pluck and the perseverance which
helped make Montana good state
for the railroads IL penetrate years
later"
A Description.
4. X. Mcclure. when he Travelled
through Montana in the Cos, witnessed
the destruction which had been caused
by the devastation of the grasshnp-
pers. In a letter dated Hoggum, Mon
tana territory. August 20. 1867, he gives
this description:
But even where the moisture from
the river Was sufficient 10 satisfy the
wants of vegetation. the grasshapners
devastated almost every field and
garden. With the first soft breath Of
spring they came up out OF the ground
where the eggs had been deposited
the year hefnre-by millions, and
marched in countless throngs wherever
anything green and suecutent invited
them Here and there field or farm
escaped their destructive visits, with
ais