The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-07-23

Washington, d. c. July 22.-TC
Forum: notice that grasshop
pers have put in an appear
ance in some portions of NORTH
Dakota. had some experience with
these pests at bismarck in 1873. ]
broke five acres on my homestead that
spring and planted 1t to beans. There
was as nice a stand as / ever saw
Every leaf showed rich, green, healthy
growth, and / felt sure l had made a
great strike by planting beans. One
day dark cloud appeared. hiding the
bright sunshine from the face of the
earth, and gradually settled down just
east of the city of Bismarck | knew
what 1t meant for ] had been through
the grasshopper years in southwestern
Minnesota, when the whole country
south and west of Mankato was de-
Vastated. The late farmer Wallace
then living at Mankato, Mimi, was a
commissioner, appointed by Governor
Austin to relieve the distress that
followed, and Minnesota was compelled
to make a loan to the farmers not
only for seed but for bread to carry
them through those years Of famine.
That Is what it amounted to, for every
vestige of green was destroyed in some
places. and the grasshoppers laying
their eggs gave herd of young the
next spring that again DESTROYED ev-
erything before them.
went out to see what they had
done to my beans. There was not a
green thing left on that five acres.
They had gone to the roots, even,
leaving little hole where the stalk
stood. They went away with the
wind, and drifted over into the Red
river valley and settled, down about
Fargo They rested on the track, were
blown against the sides of buildings,
sometimes making drift a foot or
more in depth, and in some places
they were on the track in such a
mass that the trains crushed them,
'oiiing the track so that the cars could
not be moved until the track was
sanded.
The record show that they had Wis
tied the valley before that. The first
visitation was in 1918, and the Sell
Kirk colonists were the sufferers. The
season of 1917 had been a fruitful one,
Ihe return had been from forty to
Sixty to!d for the seed planted. and the
next year opened with great promise.
In waves of silver drifting on to
harvest rolled the grain" but one
bright day the sun was darkened, a
cloud resting over the whole land II
was from myriads Of grasshoppers,
Ihey stripped the trees of every bit
or green, and fields and gardens were
laid waste. The country was left bar
rem of seed which, had to be brought
ln' the next spring, from Prairie du
Chein up the Mississippi and the Min
nesota to Big Stone lake, making a
portage into Lake Traverse and then
into the Bots de Sioux and thence
down the Red river, arriving June 3.
There were five weeks in 1882 when
there was canoe communication, be-
tween the Red river and these lakes.
and canoes made uninterrupted trips
from Pembina to st. Paul. The lower
Red river was a sea some twenty to
thirty miles wide.
From the far distant PhiIippines T
have an alleged joke on a senator who
got pension bill through for one of
his constituents because he had his
retreat cut off at Gettysburg. quite
equal in Importance to the man who
went to the hospital for his wife who
left a note telling him that she had
gone to have her kimona cut out.
or the 2,213,365 Of the boys in blue
who fought in the civil war only about
half million now remain. Last year
the grim reaper removed $4,000 from
the pension roll, at the rate of ninety
a day.
In the revolutionary war fifty
battles and sklrmishes were fought
during period of eight years. In the
civil war during four years of hostili-
ties there was fought 1856 battles. or
an average of $50 year against eight
a year during the revolutionary war.
In the civil war on the union side L.
1862 were killed in battle and 1s3,267
died of wounds. During the revolu-
tionary war the killed in battle were
1,735, including the losses on the
frontier in affairs with the Indians. In
seventeen battles the losses were GIT.
Al Lexington. so were killed; at White
Plains, 300 were missing; at Prince
ton, 100 killed and 800 missing; at
Brandywine. 300 killed and 1000 miss
ingi at Saltwater. killed, wounded and
missing, AIS: at Monmouth. 81 killed
and 100 wounded and missing; at Eau
taw Springs, $50 killed; at Guilford
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