The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1919-03-21
l7.YEAR LOCUST GOING
some DAY To Be GONE
Great Swarms Of Insects In
Field And Wood
This Year

new-built within the past II years.
The ground on which 1t stands was
originally woodland. In the summer
of 1902 all the trees Whereabouts were
full of i7-year locusts. Eggs were
deposited in the branches, the larvae
came out. dropped lightly TO the
ground. and dug in. The long period
of subtcrranean existance is almost
ended In May of this year the in
sects will start toward the light and
air-and will come in contact with
the concrete floor of your cellar!
There may be another situation as
hopeless, but certainly not more so.
That clearing up Of woodland for
the building of houses and for Guilt
walton Is the principal agency that Is
making the 17-year locust, whose
real name is periodical cicada, van
ishing species. DR.. Gideon Il. Smith,
one of the earlier scientific observers.
allowed rather a melancholy note TO
creep into his invaluable manuscript
when he wrote that future genera
lions, If they read his writings at all,
would shake their heads and think Of
him as romancer. In the same
note. also. c. l.. Marlatt, one of the
latest systematic observers, writes in
. his bulletin, ITO the lover of nature.
there Is something regrettable in this
Ia. Tor s,f m in
presents. as does the periodical cica-
da. so much that is interesting and
anomalous"
Thus. the present-day experts of
the United States Department of Ag-
riculture agree with the early obser-
yer that the time will come when
there will be no periodical cicadas
left.
But End l. Not Near.
That time. however is a long way
of. There will be multiplied mil
lions Of them this year and in other
years to come. For many persons
the cicada will be as new a sight as it
was to the first observers when they
came from Europe TO the American
forests. Modern writing on the sub
ject is done. of course, in the light OF
all the observations that have been
made through more than zoo years.
They lack the freshness OF the writ
ings of men who saw the cicada be-
fore a literature of the insect had
been built up Those early writings
therefore. possess an unusual inter
est.
In 1863 Nathaniel Moreton. who
lived at Cambridge. Mass. wrote
New England's Memorial In it he
told of "a kind OF a pestilent fever"
that had prevailed in 1888 and car
ried off many OF the whites and In
dams in and near Plymouth
1T is TO be observed" he says,
THAT the spring before there was
numerous company of Flies. which
were Ike for bigness unto Wasps or
Bundle Bees. they came out OF little
holes In the ground, and did eat up
the green things, and made such
constant yelling noise as made all
the woods ring of them ana ready
to deaf the hearers.
The old gentleman is TO be excused
for believing that the cicadas did eat
up the green Things" The appear
ance of the dead and withered
branches doubtless was such as to
\ Justify such a conclusion.
M One T. NJ, supposed TO he Thomas
.Iatthewes, son of Gov, Samuel Mat
hews, of Virginia. who observed the
cicadas in 1875, fell into the same
error.
"The third strange appearance
he writes of the disasters of that
wear, was swarms of flies about an
inch long and big as the tip of a
mans little finger. rising out of spi-
got holes in the ground, which eat
the new-sprouted leaves from the
tops of the trees, without other harm'
and In a month left us"
hDOtntf obH'f' ''''''
Pehr Kahn a number of years later
was a more accurate observer. He
wrote a report on America for the
Swedish Government, in which he
said:
"There are a kind of locusts which
about every seventeenth year come
hither in incredible numbers. They
come out of the ground in the mid
die of May and make, for six weeks
together, such a noise in the trees
and woods that two persons who meet
in such a place can not understand
each other unless they speak louder
than the locusts can chirp. During
that time they make. with the sting
IN their tail, holes in the soft bark oil
the little branches on trees, by whieh
u means these branches are ruined
They do no other harm to the trees
or other plants"
-, .oorIx, Q0O wars then, the