The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1919-07-04
17-YEAR LOCUST
IS SLOWLY GOING.


the absolute in hopelessness7
Well. let It be said that the house in
which you live is comparatively new
built within the last's17 years. The
ground on which It stands was orig
inally woodland. In thessummer OF
1902 all the trees thereabouts were full
Of lT-year locusts. Eggs were depos-
ited In the branches, the larvae came
out. dropped lightly to the grouqds and
dug in. The long period ofcsslibter--
ranean existence Is almost ended. In
May the insects will start toward the
light and air-and will come in con-
tact with the concrete floor of your
cellar! There may be another situa-
stion rs hopeless, but certninly none
more so.
That clearing up Of woodland for
the building Of houses and for cultiva.
tion Is the principal agency that is maxi
ing the 17-year locust. whose real
name Is the periodical cicada. van.
ishing species. Dr.. Gideon B. Smith.
one of the earlier scientific observers,
allowed rather melancholy note to
creep into his invaluable manuscript
when he wrote that future generations,
If they read his writings at all, would
shake their heads and think Of him as
romancer.
Being Slowly Exterminated.
In the same note, also, G. l.. Mariatt,
one of the latest systematic observ-
ers, writes in his bulletin. "To the
lover Of nature there is something re-
grettable in this slow determination Of
an insect which presents, as does the
periodical cicada, SO much that is in
teresting and anomalous"
Thus, the present-day experts Of the
United States department of agricul-
ture agree with the early observer that
the time will come when there will be
no periodical cicadas left.
That time, however, is long way
off. There will be multiplied millions
of them this year and in other years
to come. For many persons the cicada
will be as new a sight as 1t was to the
first observers when they came from
Europe to the American forests. Mod
ern writing en- the subject is done, of
course, in the light,of all the observa-
tions that have been made through
more than 200 years. They lack the
freshness of the writings of men who
saw the cicada before a literature of
the insect had been built up. Those
early writings, therefore. possess an
unusual interest. X
Accompanied by Fever.
In 1860 Nathaniel Moreton, who
lived at Cambridge, Mass, wrote New
EngIands Memorial In 1t he told OF
"a kind Of pestilent fever" that had
prevailed in 1888 and carried of
many of the whites and Indians in and
Y near Plymouth
SIT is to be observed he says, "that
the spring before there was a numes-
GUS company of flies. which were like
for bigness unto wasps or bumbie-bees,
they came out Of little holes in the
ground and did eat up the green
things, and made such constant yell
ing noise as made all the woods ring
Of them and ready to deaf the hear
ers.'
The old gentleman, is to be excused
for believing that the cicadas "dld eat
up the green things The appearance
Of the dead and withered branches
doubtless was such as to justify such
conclusion. One at. NJ" supposed to
he Thomas Matthews, son of Samuel
Matthews, governor Of Virginia, who
observed the cicadas in 1875, fell into
the same error.
For nearly 300 years, then, the writ
h fen record Of the cicada has beer
Milling up, undergoing corrections nov
and then, receiving new discoveries
from time to time. As nearly as car
be Judged 1t is complete now. Tit
latest addition is circular, "The Sew
enteen-Year Locust in 1919" by DixoI
Merritt of the Office of information
United States department of agricul
ture. II does not pretend to presen
new facts, but 1t gives succinct his
tory Of the cicada and the proteetiv
means that can be taken against II
THE circular will be available to intel
ested persons in the Fl states wher
the periodical cicada will appear thi
year.