Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1913-09-17
STATE HIT BY PEST
Kansas Tells of Scourge That
Hurt Region in Seventies.
Story CT Big Grssshopper Time
Graphic Description OF Swarm
That Came Like a Cloud and
Devasted the Fields.

Kansas City. Grasshoppers in Kan
sas, Ell? It's been u long time aimee
we heard that cry. and sorrowful
enough one it is, too--grasshopper In
Kansas. They came the hrst time.
Tom, in a, when your father was
Just wee biz OF youngsteF. Ho
says he can still remember how ha
used 10 hate 20 step out the back
door. because the hoppers few up all
around him and above his head and
whirred in his face.
You hear lot OF foolish talk. runs
an old umer's story IN the Kansas
City Times. every year about the
seventeen year locust. bat the Rocky
mountain grasshoppers OF the '70s
came heap nearer being the bible
kind Of locusts-the kind Moses
brought down upon the land OF Egypt
TO eat up every green thing" That's
what these miserable pests did all
right
II was late summer-most of tho
small grain had been harvested when
they appeared FIRST. I'd gone TO town.
and your Uncle Tom, that you're
named after~-a little bit OF a shaver
he was then, about teu--was riding
herd on little bunch of cattle Every
body had some work 10 do IN those
early days in Kansas, even the young
sters. He had little old pony, gentle
il was, and II was his job to see that
our cattle didn't stray OF there
weren't any fences TO speak OF ip a
good part of Kansas in "A.
Well. sir. It's the same story tina,
every one'll tell you that saw the
hoppers-~they came like a cloud be.
fore the sun. Way. way up in the air
they few, two, three hundred feet
above the earth and when you looked
up you could see their wings glittering
in the sunlight like little flakes or
silyer-or Ike snow, some folks said
We'd heard about 'em before, but II
seems like you can never quite realize
a thing of that sort till you see g.
And then they began TO drop down
all around. and 1t seemed like they
hardly got to earth before they com
menced to eat.
They weren't particular what they
ate. either, Just 80 twas green. You
could watch them start on field OF
corD--:irst the ta'ssels and the silk and
the new tender shoots and then the
edges OF the big. broad leaves. and
finally the stalks themselves drove
home pretty, quick, but when ! got
there there wasn't a sign OF your
Uncle Tom or of the cattle. They'd
Just taken GU. for Nebraska. 70 looked
like. ] got on horse and rode along
their trail--it was broad enough SO
green New Highlander couldn't have
lost II. and in about three hours or
so | found 'em. The cattle had
stampeded when the hoppers came
they settled on 'eB thick. on their
eyes, their noses, all over 'cm--and
they put down their heads and
plunged on for the north, sullen and
stubborn-Tom said for IA good while
he didn't know whether they meant 10
stop any short OF Nebraska. But the
little Fellow kept along after them and
Enally they were plumb played out.
] wonder If you can imagine what
IL looks Ike II see trees stripped naked
m the middle Of summer--just stand
ing there with tno bare branches and
no hint Of green. That was what
happened when the grasshoppers
came, and the fields. TOO, bare anc
brown. "a if you'd peeled the erop2
right or them
They ate the very grass and dis
carded wheat straw was boarded that
year we used 1t TO feed the cattle
during the winter AS the grassbop-
pers ate the country bare and went
on. or died. they left their eggs be
hind
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