Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1875 — Destroying Grasshoppers. [ARTICLE]

Destroying Grasshoppers.

The farmers of Oxford township, Johnson County, Han., have been experimenting on scheme;*, to, destroy the young grasshoppers, >or so diminish their number* as to reduce their ravages. Several experiments-show that by ditcfhing and driving the grasshoppers into the ditches they can then throw straw'nyer them and hum them, of cover them up and thus destroy myriads of them. One farmer, Mr. Riley, with the assistance of his wiser afi# Children, last week, destroyed opr two bushels of thefn in this way, jto "a clay and a half. Thursday night & public meeting was held at which the, subject was discussed* and .toemethods employed and their jelative success stated, and the meeting resulted in ja determination of the farmers of that township to co-operate generally in the ditching method. .• / The most successful, way to employ this method is to set stakes and stretch canvas afound them to the form Of a V. Dig ditches inside df the Canvas, and. drive the young grasshopper into the ditches. In,this case the ditches need not he deep, as the canvas stops, the young grasshoppers and confines :, them in the ditches. They can theif "be Cohered with St'raw and bus ned or tooyerad with earth. > ; q This plan iaj all the more successful from the fact that the young grasshoppers are yet without wings amt .cannot!’ fly over the. dhebefr and that they are confined to spots where the ground was bare last fall. By taking these* spots it is not an extensive task to clear a farm of ttieto.

In 1867, When the situation was about the same as now, a Mr. Kennedy, in that {neighborhood, employed this method and saved, his crops, whjty his neighbors suffered severely. ,A general participation of the.neighborhood of Oxford .is as-* sured anfi the people would like to see other localities employ the same or scripe other method and .notes, fpr future benefit. We hope they may find it a successful scheme, and will . take pleasure to chronicling the result. A farmer put ontfte Blue, iu this county, is employing another me which in some parts of a farm appears to be equally successful He plows furrows st intervals ana leaves them so. He finds That the young grasshoppete seek the bare places thifs to speiid ilfd pight;' and cove? the brpken;gr6und. At night he pavers them. with, straw; r ai^i, then Jwmribmi Another method has already been made public byuHon. John B. WorUSll, ap-' plldable t 6 meadows and other that .may be rolled. It is simply to’ roll the ground, which crushes and kills the young hoppers. i : We are informed by somecgenttetflCh' that stock thC’ warm-weather 'toey developing so rppidly that be expected to take their departure at an earty day. It does not appear iirOm rte ports that they have nrnterialiy dismaged wheat or corn—thfe “two principal crops of this cdtrhtfy: Thqre is apprehension that they and th*t is' all .—KpfHWt City Journal.