New-York tribune., 1909-02-14
LOCUST TERRIBLE FOE.
South Il frican Farmer Sits Helpless
While Crops Are Ruined.

South Africa seems to be a paradise to the farm
er until the locusts come The farmer has been
planting wheat for hvs months. beginning with
March and he looks for an enormously prohta5le
harvest IN the midsummer month OF December.
After pIoughng and dragging for six days he has
put in a day sowing the wheat by hand. and
has kept repeating the process until hundreds Of
acres have been planted There are fields Of wheat
in all stages from the young green stalks to the ye
lowing heads OF grain It will be convenient to reap
the crop in the successfully ripenng fields. just
it wac convenient to plant 1t IN instalments. The
farmer congratuIates himself on a climate that
makes this method possible He figures that ia
vestment OF twenty-five bags Of seed worth $50
will return him 80 bags Of grain worth $3.50.
"Baas. die sprinkhaan kom'' c'Master. the locusts
coming'D. says his Kafhr servant.
Thus is shattered the dream OF opulence and
success as the farmer drowses one hot silent mid
summer day IN his iron rooted bungalow, says
Leonard FIemmng in ''The Grand Magazine" On
the horizon the distant range OF hills lies a
long, faint cloud. 1t is dust colored narrow line
with front perhaps seventy miles wide II blurs
the sharp outline OF the hills In the African sun
light. This is locust swarm as you see It first az
a distance OF thirty forty miles IN hour the
line has become light brown fog drifting rapidly
toward you
The farmer is helpless in face OF the advancing
ruin and desolat!on He only watch the ap-
proach of inevitable disaster The landscape is
gradually blurred by the great brown cloud that
spreads and mounts higher in the sky. Trees and
houses g few miles OF become invisible. The cloud
shifts, with patches of dark brown masses and
gaps OF gray OF light brown where the locusts
not so Ihickly crowded constant change of
shape and formation gives an appearance like dense
smoke belching from a forest fire. A sound like
the distant breakers of the ocean steals into the
silence. It Is the whirr and OF billions OF
wings beating the air.
The whirr becomes louder. Nearby green fields
are shaded by the appalling visitation. few To-
Gusts 4y past. There is a sudden increase OF the
sound a the army OF insects falls on
the land. and their wings throb like a colossal
dynamo revolving at terrific speed. The bright
is obscured and the ground is in shadow A build
iLg few rods away cannot be seen. Millions OF
locusts down, while other millions continue
their flight. The ground is packed with locusts
that every square inch Of earth is alive Every
blade of grass wheat is attacked by many
insects as it will hold. A hundred locusts
one stalk, bend it to earth and consume 1t in less
than a minute. Within ten minutes the farmers
two thousand OF wheat have disappeared
Every blade of grass. every flower. every leaf
the trees Is deVoured. For hours, and days,
the maddening roar Of the wings is heard and the
unnumbered hosts continue their flight.
At last. when tho plague has passed. nothing re-
mains but a desert waste, naked OF every green
thing for hundreds OF miles.