Warren sheaf., 1913-09-18
stat / 'HI||''1||'BP||'E|::'Si1|'
x Kansas q Tells II " col'uroe That
N Il Hurt Region IN s S,Yenties. l
Story q 4 Bl0 orasshopper Time.
Graphite Descrlp ptlon 81 Swarm
That Came Like I Cloud ana NE
a II II Dsxasted the Fields. rs

# Kansas City. 3rasshoppers III Kan.
sas, eh It's been q long time since
we beard that cry. and sorro,,w,f,,l
enough one 4 s.. too ~ grasshoppers il
Kansas. They came the first time.
Tom, y ~. when your father Wa
jast q wee Bit of ! youngster. He
saJs hs oan still remember how Ia
ussd to hate to stsp out the back
door. beeapse the hoppers dew Up iii
around him and above his head and
whir1sd IN his faca. Hs y. 'Il8
You hsar 3 lot Of foolish talk. runs
an old timers story Ii the Kansasa
City Times. every year about the
seventeen year locust. but the Rocky
mountain grasshoppers Of the '7Os
came 9 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. IN. @5 sir 1z5s ..5.J.
1t was Late summer most OF the
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 shaver
he was then, about ten-was riding
herd on little bunch of cattle. Every
body had some work to do in those
early days in Kansas. even the young
sters. He had a little old pony, gentle
1t was, and it was his job to see that
our cattle didn't stray of there
weren't any fences to speak OF IN a
good part Of Kansas in ~. S$
Well. sir, it's the same story that
every onell tell you that saw the
hoppers-they came like 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
stlver-or like snow. some folks said.
Wed heard about 'em before, but it
seems like you can never quite realize
a thing of that sort till you see it.
And then they began to drop down
all around, and it seemed like they
hardly got to earth before they com
menced to eat
They weren't particular what they
ate, either, just 50 twas green. You
could watch them start on field OF
coEn-drst the tassels and the silk and
the new tender shoots and then the
edges OF the big. broad leaves. and
finally the stalks themselves. drove
homo pretty quick. but when got
there there wasn't q sign Of your
Uncle Tom or Of the cattle. They'd
Just taken out for Nebraska It looked
like I got on horse and rode along
their trail-it was broad enough 30 q
green New Englander couldn't have
lost 1t, and in about three hours or
80 / found 'em. The cattle had
stampeded when the hoppers came
they settled on 'em thick, on their
eyes, their noses, Ill over 'em-and
they put down their heads and
plunged off for the north, sullen and
stubborn-Tom said for good while
he didn't know whether they meant to
stop any short of Nebraska. But the
little fellow kept along after them and
finally they were plumb played out;
he headed 'em around and got them
started back toward home. .s:.< @<%
I wonder If you can imagine what
1t looks like to see trees stripped naked
In the middle OF summer-jus stand
ing there with the bare branches and
no hint OF green. That was what
happened when the grasshoppers
came, and the fields. too. bare and
brown, as if you'd peeled the crops
right OF them. t s5..
They ate the very grass and dis
carded wheat straw was boarded that
year-we used it to feed the cattle
during the winter. As the grasshop-
pers ate the country bare. and went
on. or died, they left their eggs be-
hind everywhere you could see the
sod honeycombed with holes that
looked as If they might have been
punched with an umbrella. as.J
BIG RATHER LOOSE I'm CAR