Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-07

Better knowledge of the means Of
doing battle with the grasshopper plague
which is bringing disaster to large crop
areas in the Middle West is demanded
by Americans. Ruin for individual
farmers Is seen, although the cereal sup
ply is expected to be Sufficient for nor
NAL needs. The history of visitations is
reviewed. and the scientists who have
predicted that mankind must conquer
such pests If it is to survive get a wider
hearing.
THE history of this marauding pest
is short. but full of tragedy for the
Western farmers" says the Rochester
Times Union, observing that the swarms
are laying waste fields in many coun-
ties in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa,
Minnesota and Michigan" The Toledo
Blade remarks: "A poet once wrote:
Happy insect! What can be
In happiness compared to thee?
Fed with nourishment divine,
Dewy mornings gentle wine
poet would. An agriculturist whose
crops have been destroyed has other
thoughts" The WATERFOWL Times states
Very similar was the plague of 1874.
Kansas and Nebraska had good crops,
but just as the wheat began to ripen the
grasshoppers came. They denuded the
whole area. They heaped themselves on
the railroad tracks SO that trains were
blocked for lack of traction"
A monument to gulls in Salt Lake
City is mentioned by the Charlotte OBJ
server as it recalls that the grasshop-
pers nearly drove the Mormons from
Central Utah in 184S," and that there
seemed to be no hope of saving their
first crop when suddenly from the West
came great fiocks of seagulls, which
gorged themselves on grasshoppers, and
the crops were saved"
"And the grasshopper is burden, as
the preacher said in the Plains States,
remarks the San Francisco Chronicle.
Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota know
how Egypt felt when the plague OF
locusts arrived. They are both praying
as we know, could only pray. And Isis
and Osiris gave them no help. Not even
that famous cross word puzzle god, Ra,
for nothing is clearer than that the sun
is the god of the grasshopper. This is
getting grasshoppers and locustS mixed.
What of it? Properly speaking, locuSts
are grasshoppers and grasShoppers 10
custs-all except the 17-year locust,
which is neither one nor the other, but
bug"
I'm the warfare of man against in
sect" warns the Chicago Daily News,
there can be neither truce nor treaty
of peace. If the entomologists are right,
it Is upon the outcome of that conflict
more than any other that survival of
man and his civilization depends" The
Minneapolis Star holds that though the
hopper ranks as No. l public enemy
among the insects this year, entomol-
ogiSts are authority for the statement
that four other American pests are
worse marauoerS-tfe bon weevil, the
boil worm, the chinch bug and the Hes
sian fiy," and adds: And the rank Of
chief nuisance to city dwellers is still
held by large margin by the mos
quito
IAN extremely important contribution
to agriculture would be the discovery of
some means of checking this plague in
its early stages" advises the South Bend
Tribune, while the Charleston CIV. Va.)
Daily Mail sees the demand for "a cam
paign over a few years to bring perma-
nent relief" But the Manchester
Leader, conceding that 'it Is not too
much to expect that eventually means
Of preventing this wholesale invasion
will be found" declares that mo means
have been found, although use Of poison
sprays and of lethal bran has proved
effective" The Davenport Democrat
points out that THE insects are not
migratory visitors. They grow
right where they areas
"Millions have been killed remarks
the Atlanta Journal, and thouah other
millions have arisen to take their places,
the defenders of the crops secmmt0 hold
at present the upper hand. I'm tu-
nately, from one standpoint such M
noyiuR phepomens do not occur OH.
II ne grasshoppers tOeeGathere6 Ct