The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-07-21
BY JOHN c. POLLY
NEA Service Special
Correspondent


was a soft ruStling, as OF wind
through trees.
Then the sound of rain, hitting
with a dull thud.
But there were no trees, no
wind. no rain. The sun beat down.
Underfoot, the ground was
moving, alive, crawling. IL shifted
back and forward, from one side
to the other.
We were in the heart of the
Grasshopper belt of southeastern
Colorado, on the farm of Max
HutchinS, 16 miles southeast OF
Hugo.
AS far as you could see, the
crawling blanket moved over the
ground. HutchinS bent down to
the edge of what had been 30
acres of beans three inches above
ground. He crumbled some of the
baked earth to show US how the
hoppers had eaten the stems be-
low the surface.
Last Thursday HutchinS went
to bed dreaming of getting a
good price for the 10000 pounds
of beans the field would yield.
Friday night he surveyed a field
on which not a green thing show
ed.
"Not even a weed he said bit
terly.
Hutchins would have stayed to
talk, but he had work to do. He
had to spread poison so that the
invaders would die before they
could grow wings and ruin the
crops of his fellow farmers in Lin
coin county and farmers hundreds
of miles north and east.
HORDE MARCHES ON
You don't write about a grass
hopper plague as you would fire
or flood. You can see the waters
of flood-the flames of fire.
But standing with Hutchins you
could only see the shifting earth
and dumbly realize that over that
hill and over the next hill and
next and next, the destroying
horde was marching on-over
1000 square miles in Lincoln
county alone, and Lincoln is only
one of nine counties in the Grass
hopper belt.
We saw one ugly picture after
another Tuesday around Hugo.
We saw grazing land bare of
growth as the kitchen floor in
your home. We saw yellow fields,
representing the sacrifice of time
and body and slender savings. We
saw main streets of little towns
stained with the marching insect
troops.
You ask how many?
So did we. And we got the I'M
official estimate of seven billion
hopperS in one l0-mile stretch.
So perhaps it is simpler to say
there are enough hopperS to eat
a six-acre tract field clean of ey-
cry living thing in = ID hours.
FARMERS WON'T RETREAT
But you can see ugly pictures
and hear ugly stories of the inva-
sion and dig deeper to find the
courage of dry land farmers and
ranchers who have licked a per-
sistent drouth and who will not
be driven from their homes by
all of the graSShopperS in Egypt,
Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado.
They have the same quiet cour-
age of County Agent Don Nc
Millen, of Soil Conservation Su-
perintendent n. b. Cool, and of
Agronomist Gale Warner.
/ stood talking to County Agent
McMillen and George Schafer,
who owns 10000 acres of grazing
land in the center of the little
town of Boyero, southeast of HUI
go. Schafer was one of the first
of the big ranchers to realize the
seriousness of the situation manths
before eggs Matched.
Who'll win, you or the hop
pers?" ! asked McMillen.
Were doing all we can," he
answered.
"We've got the finest co-opera-
ton anyone could want. But we
need more materials. more saw
dust, more bran. A few days ago
we needed more men. Now we
need more materials"
WORK HAND-IN-HAND
There is cooperation. The Soil
Conservation Service. the Colo
RADIO National Guard, the CCC
camp, the state highway depart
ment. the county, the tiny towns
all are working hand in hand to
beat back the invaders lest they
sweep thousands more acres of
land with the combined efficiency