THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Auzust 



DARKDAYSKKANSAS 



O 



GOVERNOR MORRILL'S HISTORY OF" 

 THE GRASSHOPPER PLAGUE. 



Began In 18(>« and Ended In 18T5 — Terri- 

 ble Destruction of All Vegetation — Braver 

 Men There Never Were Than the Farm- 

 ers of Kansas. 



Governor Morrill's favorite story is about 

 the Kansas grasshopper. Here it is: 



"Up to 1866 there had been no grasshop- 

 pers seen in JBrown county. The county 

 had been settled 12 years, and our people 

 ■were in Ijlissful ignorance of the cxii,teLice 

 of this plague. In the latter part of Au- 

 gust of that year reports were brought in 

 by settlers on the frontier that th( y had 

 appeared there in iuniieuse numbers and 

 were very destructive. Day by xlay reports 

 same that they were drawing near, and 

 about Sept. 8 they reached the western 

 line of the county, moving from 3 to 12 

 miles per day. 



"On Sept. 10 the immense army, which 

 no man could number, reached Hiawatha, 

 devouring every green thing from the face 

 of the earth. The cornfields were literally 

 stripped, leaving the bare stalk with the 

 ears hanging to it and the latter often 

 badly eaten. The corn was too far ad- 

 ,vanced, however, for them to injure it 

 very seriously, and the only real loss from 

 them that fall was in the destruction of 

 forage. They deposited immense quanti- 

 ties of eggs, which hatched out in the lat- 

 ter part of April and early in May, 1867. 



"This crop was of course obliged to 

 feed upon whatever was within their reach 

 until they were large enough to travel, and 

 whenever they hatched in large numbers 

 near fields of small grain there was no pos- 

 sibility of raising it. The beaten paths and 

 roads and the newly broken prairie seemed 

 to bo favorite locations for depositing their 

 eggs. Many fields of small grain were en- 

 tirely destroyed that spring, while many 

 others escaped unharmed. The corn was 

 not much injured, though in some locali- 

 ties the early corn was de.stroyed. About 

 June 20 they left and were not again seen 

 during the season. But a small portion of 

 the county was under cultivation then, 

 and the total loss was small compared with 

 that of 1874. 



"In tlie fall of 1868 they again appeared, 

 but far less numerous and causing far less 

 loss. Their appearance at this time caused 

 very little excitement, and but slight im- 

 portance was attached to it. A few eggs 

 were deposited, and the following spring a 

 few gardens were injured, but not much 



attention was paia tfJ it. 



"In the early part of August, 1874, they 

 again appeared. At this time the country 

 west was much Iietter settled, and the rail- 

 roads penetrating to the ftocky mountains 

 brought the news of the approaching hosts 

 while they were hundreds of miles away 

 and weeks before they reached here. The 

 season had been a very dry one, with fre- 

 quent hot south winds, so common an at- 

 tendant of droughts and so exceedingly 

 disagreeable. Th(^ corn at best would have 

 been nearly a failure, but what little there 

 was of grain or foliage speedily disap- 

 peared. Trees were stripped of their leaves. 

 Apple and peach orchards could frequently 

 be seen loaded with rich fruit, but without 

 a leaf to protect it from the hot sun. In 

 many cases the fruit was much injured, 

 and it was a common sight to see peach 

 trees hanging fuli of pits, the meat of the 

 fruit having l)eeu neatly nibbled off. In 

 some cases the bark was eaten from trees. 

 Kothing escaped, for they seemed quite in- 

 different as to the quality of their food. 

 Tomato plants, onions and even tobacco 

 plants were utterly destroyed. 



"Again they laid their eggs in immense 

 numbers. Heavy freight trains on the 

 railroads were frequently delayed for hours 

 by their gathering on the track in large 

 numbers, the wheels crushing them and 

 forming an oily, soapy substance. 



"The spring of 1875 but little apprehen- 

 sion of much damage was felt, and the 

 farmers put in an unusual amount of 

 small grain. When the warm days of 

 spring came, the little pests hatched out in 

 numl)ers far exceeding anything Ijefore ex- 

 ,perienced. The season was unusually fa- 

 vorable for small grain, and on May 1 

 there was as fine a prospect for an abun- 

 dant harvest as was ever known. Ten 

 days later the myriads of little hoppers, 

 fast developing, were sweeping it awaj', 

 and on June 1 but few fields of grain were 

 left. The corn was much injured; nearly 

 all the first planting was utterly destroyed. 

 Man}' replanted at once, without waiting 

 until they had passed away, and again lost 

 it all. In one case a farmer x>lauted 200 

 acres four times. 



"Those were indeed dark days for the 

 farmers. Ail hope for raising anything for 

 tlie season was well nigh gone. The mid- 

 dle of June came, and still the hoppers tar- 

 ried. The farmers with wonderful courage 

 and patience had plowed up their young 

 grain fields where the crop had been de- 

 stroyed and were liusily engaged in plant- 

 ing corn. From June 12 to 20 an immense 

 amount of corn was planted. In an ordi- 

 nary season this would have been too late 

 to make any crop, but the season proved 

 most favorable. Rains were frequent and 

 not too heav^v AJjout June. 2.0 the srass- 



