Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1894 — WORST DROUGHT IN YEARS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WORST DROUGHT IN YEARS.

Wcatern New York Almost laterally Bur lin'* Up. The worst drought in years in Western New York is now being experienced and already the 10.-s of crops has been very great But the most

serious features of the drought is the grasshopper pest. Grasshoppers have stripped the pastures and meadows and are now attacking the tops of potatoes and even the grape vines. The number of the insects is almost incredible. When the farmers go into the field s to destroy them they are compelled to wear masks. Some farmers take a and plow and try to bury them. Grasshoppers are an excellent fertilizer. One ingenious farmer converts his horse rake into a net and rakes hoppers by the s-tack at the edge of a pond. Then he scoops them into the pond and makes compo;t heaps of the drowned bu-;S. Ho has made fifty loads of this kind of fertilizer. Milch cows are being sold lor a song because fodder is so scarce. Hay fields lie burned and blackened, cropi have been destroyed and even trees are short of foliage. In several cities a water famine is feared and the greatest economy in the use of water has been ordered. Because water for sprinkling is denied many lawns are being ruined.

RAKING UP GRASSHOPPERS FOR MANURE.