The citizen., 1913-09-12
STATE HIT BY PEST
Kansas Tells Of SCourge That
Hurt Region in Seventies.
Story of a Big Grasshopper Time
Graphic Description of Swarm
That Came Like Cloud and
DeVasted the Fields.

Kansas City.-Grasshoppers in Kan.
sas, eh? It's been a long time since
we heard that cry, and sorrowful
enough one 1t is, too-grasshopper in
Kansas. They. came the first time,
Tom, in "a, when your father was
just a wee bit of youngster. He
says he can still remember how be
used to hate to step out the back
door, because the hoppers flew up all
around him and above his head and
whirred in his face.
You hear a lot of foolish talk, runs
an old timers story in the Kansas
City Times, every year about the
seventeen year locust, but the Rocky
mountain grasshoppers of the 7Os
came a 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
1t was late summer-most Of the
small grain had been harvested when
they appeared first. Id 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 little old pony, gentle
it was, and it was his job to see that
our cattle didn't stray off-there
weren't any fences to speak of in
good part of Kansas in IA.
Well, sir, it's the same story that
every one'll 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 fakes or
silver-or like 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 IL
And then they began to drop down
all around, and it seemed like tney
hardly got to earth before they com
menced to eat.
They weren't particular what they
ate, either, just so twas green. lou
could watch them start on a heid OF
corn-first the tassels and the SILK anu
the new tender shoots and then the
edges of the big, broad leaves ana
finally the stalks themselves. | drove
home pretty quick, but when gov
there there wasn't sign OF your
Uncle Tom OF of the cattle. They
Just taken out for Nebraska, 1t lookeu
like. l got on horse and rode aiOns
their trail-it was broad enough SO d
green New Englander couldn't nav
lost it. and in about three hours Vi
so found 'em. The cattle nau
stampeded when the hoppers came
they settled on 'em thick, on 'neii
eyes their noses, all over em-anu
they put down their heads anI
plunged off for the north. sullen anu
stubborn-Tom said for a good "nl'e
he didn't know whether they meant "
stop any short of Nebraska bu' 'nS s
/ little fellow kept along after them aau
finally they were plumb played Ous,
| wonder If you can imagine "ha,
it looks like to see trees stripped naAe1
in the middle of summer-just s'anu
ing there with the bare branches ant o,
no hint of green. That was wnns .s
happened when the grasshopp..SS
came, and the fields, too. bare ns ans
brown. as if you'd peeled the c'Op'
right off them. ais.
They ate the very grass anu .so,
carded wheat straw was hoarueu .ar .,s
year-we used it to feed tne 80, 90.
during the winter. AS the grassnOp n.
pers ate the country bare ana ",n. w.
on, or died, they left their ese' "
hind.