Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-08-02

the edges of the big, broad leaves, ;
land finally the very stalks them !
selves | drove home pretty quick. |
but when l got there there wasn't
sign of your Uncle Tom or of the
cattle. They'd just taken out for Ne
| hraska, it looked. like. l got on a
morse and road along their trail it
was broad enough so a green New
Enelander couldn't have lost it, and
n about three hours or so | found
'om. The cattle had stampcded when
the hoppers camc-dhcy settled on
ON thick, on their eyes, their noses,
all over 'em-and they put down
their heads and plunged off for the
north. sullen and stubborn-Tom said
fer L good while he didn't know
whether they meant to stop any
short of Nebraska. But the little fell
low kept along after them and finally
| they We're plumb played out; he head
ed en- around and got them started
back toward home.
| wonder if YOU can imagine what
| it locks like To see trees stripped max
ed in the middle of summer-just
| standing 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 off them.
They ate the very grass, and dis
carded wheat straw was boarded that
Near-we used it to feed the cattle
| during the winter AS the grass
| hoppers ate the country bare and
went on. or died, they left their eggs
| behind-anywhore you could see ;he
sod honeycemhed with holes that
| looked as if they might have been
| punched with an umbrella. And there
| was a lot of argument about whether
or not those eggs would hatch next
| spring. There were those that insist
| ed and shouted 'emselves red in the
| face over it that no grasshopper eggs
| could live through a Kansas winter.
You'll never see the hoppers again,
these fellows said, the winter'H kill
them. sure"
But it didn't once in while,
along through the winter, some fell
lowd go out and grug up piece of
| frozen sod with spade and axe and
bring it in and lay it by the fire
where it was steadily warm And
after a little while out the baby hop
| pers would come a-squirming and
| he'd sweep sod grubs and all into the
fire and swear cooking was too good
! for EN-.
We tried all sorts of ways to get
rid OF the hoppers. Mostly, people
burned them, dug trenches and swept
The young hoppers in and piled in
brush and set the brush on fire
There's a law that is still on the stat
ute books of Kansas that | saw some
talk of using the other day in Ford
County. It's called the Warning
out Law" and it provides that Town
ship Trustees and Mayors may call
out every man and boy between the
ages Of Il and 60 to fight back the
srasshoppers.
Well, they Matched out all right
enough in the spring of Is. At first
they couldn't walk, and it was an UNI
canny thing to see them all walking
over the ground, vast moving car
pet of them, heads to the north.
4 line like an army" says Wild
er's Annals. They leave no grass be
hind them; a strange sight. They do
an immense work and are silent;
Carlyle's type of a hero. And they
eat UP towns as his heroes devast-
ated empires"
The chickens ate so many grass
hoppers that people would not eat
eggs at all; their yolks were very
dark and strong-they were meat
eggs"
A good many people packed up
their seanty belongings and went back
East and there were others who stay
ed because they We're too poor to go.
The state appropriated $4,000 to re-
lieve the farmers, and counties voted
bonds and gave the money to relieve
their own residents. Back East peo-
pie heard about the suffering and
sent out boxes of clothing for the
"embattled, farmers"
And so at last it passed The hop
pers died or flew away; we would find
them piled up in heaps in the fence
corners, and they had to be carted
away and buried Toward the end of
June, in rs, We began replanting corn
it was too late to expect crop of
other sorts of grain that year, and
tell you ii was good in the early days
of July to see the earth sprouting
we'd been hit and hit hard, there
wasn't any way of keeping us down.
They raised wonderful lot of corn
In Kansas that summer, enough to-
carry us through the next winter and
provide something for men and beasts
to edt.-Kansas City Times.
Getting Ahead of the Lawyer.