Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-06-05

since world war i. IL Is anticipated
duction in 1912 will top the peak pro,
1910.
their appearance on east Gallatin and
have already destroyed several crops.
They are still coming and 1t is feared
they will do more damage than ever
before. The hoppers that Matched out
in the valley ate up few crops en-
tirely and it looks now as though they
would make clean sweep. except I'M
der the mountainS.'-Rocky Mountain
Husbandman, Aug. 8, 1873.
'Grasshoppers in various localities
are reported Matched and Matching in
myriads. In the grain sections OF
Meagher county. in the Prickly Pear
valley and elsewhere. the pests have
shown their destructive instincts, de-
vouring the wheat and all kinds OF
young vegetation. Farmers are flood
ing their fields, and millions of the
insects in this manner are swept away.
Other methods are adopted to combat
the encroaching insects, the most eff
fective, perhaps, being that Of scatter
ing straw in the line Of approach
setting fire to the same. and singing
the hoppers to helpless state, or
burning them to a roast. Every product
of the soil promises this year to find
an active home demand and 1t Is to
be hoped that the farmers will exhaust
every means in their power to ward off
an enemy active in dissipating the
fruits Of an important industry
Quoted by the Denver News Of June
IL, 1873. from the Helena Herald.
James Fergus writes us from near
Helena that in the spring Of this year
particularly in the lowest valleys, the
eggs and young locusts were destroyed
by the cold, snowy, freezing weather
Late in the spring following an early
warm spring, locusts appeared on
Smith river. doing, however. little OF
no harm. On the upper Missouri river
they did great damage to the late
sown wheat. On Middle creek it is
stated that fully one-fourth of the en-
tire crop is destroyed by hoppers.
Migrate to Utah
From the facts here presented II
will be seen that the locusts which
bred in the spring in 1873 in the upper
Missouri, Gallatin. Prickly Pear val
leys, and about Bozeman. constituted
the swarms which from the middle OF
July to the end of August passed over
the divide at Pleasant valley into east
ern Idaho, and the Cache and Malad
valleys Of Utah, and passed south to
the region about Salt Lake.
1T thus appears that the locusts
which bred in central Montana in the
spring Of 1873 Matched from eggs laid
in that region late in the summer OF
1877 by swarms which came over the
Belt mountains from the Yellowstone
and adjacent valleys lying to the south
owing to vigilance and activity Of
the farmers of central Montana the
damage done was light. The following
extracts from the Rocky Mountain
Husbandman will show how the young
unwinged locusts were met and van
pushed:
"'Steve Howes, near Bozeman, has
rugged up a machine to catch the
grasshoppers in bag. On Tuesday
morning last, while the hoppers were
numb and chilled, he ran the machine
over eight acres of ground and hauled
in five bushels of them. He Is quite
elated over his success, and feels conf
dent of being able to save his crop
which. only the day previous, he had
been tempted to give up in despair.
1.-The farmers of the Missouri valley
have been doing good execution dur
ing the past few weeks fighting grass
hoppers. Thousands upon thousands
have been destroyed OF the many
modes employed, that of burning ma
nure and straw mixed is proving the
most effective. The sides of the field
are protected by water bitches, and
the manure and straw is scattered
across one end in a narrow strip when
the hoppers are on the move and set
on fire and is burned. The manure
has a little straw mixed with it that
will burn for several hours. We are
informed by those who have made the
experiment that they have seen the
hoppers march on until the burning
heaps were a mass of grasshopper Gin
der.
How Gallatin Fought EN-
GAS the season grows older the
war upon the grasShopper becomes
more general all over the territory On
the Missouri river the conflict has been
long and fierce. The hoppers came out
early, and are now almost ready to
fly, and should none of the winged
armies from other sections come in.
the crops will be good, notwithstand-
ing great damage has been done. On
the Gallatin it was thought there
would be but few hatch out. The spring
there being cold and stormy. the eggs
did not hatch; but late advices in
form US that during the hot, sunny
days of the past two weeks they have
come forth in great numbers and it IS
feared will yet destroy the crops.
1.-THE modes of defense employed
have been greatly diversified and nu-
merous. Where the land has consider-
Ill 10 nkar L. -.