Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1874 — Grasshoppers Out West [ARTICLE]

Grasshoppers Out West

Chaplain Lozier writes the following interesting letter to the Indianapolis Jcnrnal, about the grasshoppers which have been so destructive to crops this season in lowa, Minnesota, Dacotah, Nebraska and Kansas : I send you in this pen box a couple of specimens of the “varments” that are doing the mischief for Northwest lowa and Southern Miuiresot-o That, is, -I- send- thein provided they don’t “skip out” before the b,ox reaches you. lam "prompted'.to insert the above proviso from the fact that one of the three that I grabbed from the crest, of a thrifty weed “unaccountably” found in my garden, has already lifted the box cover, and retired from my sanctum with evident disgust at this attempt to abridge the rights of an adopted citizen. lie was the largest and most dignified “hopper” of the trio, and it was with him ill my eye that I grabbed at that particular weed and that particular spot on the weed. For, be it known, that the .question of numbers does” not amoifnt to much in estimating grasshoppers up here in the Northwest. A duodecillion oiie way” or the other as a small' consideration in estimating our supply of the famous Comanche luxury, “present Or accounted for.” It would almost insult a well informed' grasshopper if you presumed to compute his relations by anything less than tlqe county or district. You and 1 have seep it snow in Indiana. AY o have looked heavenward as the Hakes were floating down: (I do not pretend to say tlffit ye editor has done much of this sort of looking since he got to be an editor, not when anything as snow was descend, ing,) but neither of ns ever saw snow flakes thicker than I have seen grasshoppers hs they have passed over Fort Dodge in unbroken clouds, broader than | our vision, and for several hours in succession. Your first exclamation will pi'ob- ' ably be, “Pshaw! stuJli little'things do much harm.” \”ou can’t ; imagine the” amount of business a I detachment of these little fentle--1 men in swallow-tailed coats and

green knee-breeches can transact in a short time. The otiieT dajgas a force of them were moving toward Minnesota, a foraging expedition alighted upon a large field of corn west of here,on the Central railway. The corn was'“ui the silk” and very thrifty, as is every thing that grows in lowa, but in a half a day nothing was., left save the harder portion of the, stalks which stood there stark and worthless as a last year’s mullen stalk. After dinner a ' squad of a million or such a matter deployed along the railroad track, and intercepted the eastern-bound passenger train in a way that the engineer despised. But they offered no indignities to the passengers. The presumption is that the passengers were Western men, and that consequently there were no greenbacks, no editors, nothing green aboard to tempt their appetites. These gasshoppers are, to all appearances, the lineal descendants of the “locusts” of Holy Writ. I have a specimen all the way from Syria in a vial of alcohol that would have passed for a twin brother of one of these I send you, had he not been so disfigured by excessive indulgence in liquor. Northwest lowa has had a lone and severe siege of grasshopper visitation. They have not damaged us so much this season as they did last, however. They came last year and ate up our crops and deposited their eggs. These hatched tliis spring and led upon us until they were able to fly. As soon as they arose the south winds carried them northward. Hence the sad havoc in Southern Minnesota.— J Hiring most of the summer there is a steady south wind, and this keeps them moving northward.— Now arid then there conies a north wind, and then the clouds flock down this way. They have even been carried a hundred miles south of this; Whenever they come down they give the farmers a more practical than agreeable illustration of “harvesting made easy.” One phase of the grasshopper business consoles us Northwest lowa folks: The southern breezes uniformly carry them northward from their hatching places, so th«t each crop is hatched further north than'its predecessor. Our crop is hatched and is going north, and as we hear of none between us and the Gulf, we breath freely as to the future. You doubtless are aware that the dna*ive heather” of the grass-" hopper is the sandy region of Southern Colorado. There the "very soil seems to breed them in myriads. Seldom, however, do they pass beyond either the “Hockeys” or the Sierra Nevada,not Wing able to endure the cold incident, to a journey over those frigid mount tin ranges. Many of them perish in the attemp, however, being chilled amid the “white caps” and drop upon the snow, to be accumulated in small win row’s in the gulches, much to the delectation of the nomadic Comancliean epicure, who would even turn from the seductive allurements of “Lizardraw,” to revel in tile luxuries of grasshopper cake, hot from its bed of buffalo clips. Now and then, an untoward gust ot wind carries a “scud” across into the .regions beyond tlie Missouri, and, in process of time, they work up this way. Some eight years ago, Kansas received such a visitation, and in due -time they journeyed toward the North Pole, making a pretty clean sweep of tills region. This time' they were not felt so severely for the good reason that where there was ten acres of wheat then there are a. hundred now. Farther north, however, in the sparse settlements, the devastation is complete. Should. they pay us another visit five years~ hence, Northern lowa and Southern Dakota expect to be in condition'to “ founder” the last one of them and never miss the fodder.