388 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JT'NE 11, 1S3*. 



From the Penny Magazine 

 THE LOCUST. 



The locust belongs to that class of insects which 

 naturalists distinguish by the name of gryllus. 

 The common grasshopper is of this genus, and in 

 its general appearance resembles the " migratory 

 locust," of which we have to speak. The bodj 

 of this insect is long in proportion to its size, ami 

 is defended on the back hy a strong corslet, either 

 of a greenish or light brown hue. The head 

 which is vertical, is very large, and furnished with 

 two attenme of about an inch in length ; the eyes 

 are very prominent, dark, and rolling; the jaws 

 are strong and terminate in three incisive teeth, 

 the sharp points of which traverse each other like 

 scissors. The insect is furnished with lour wings, 

 of which the exterior pair, which are properly 

 cases to the true wings, are tough, straight and lar- 

 ger than those which they cover, which are pliant, 

 reticulated, nearly transparent, and fold up in the 

 manner of a fan. The four anterior legs are ol 

 middling size, and of great use in climbing and 

 feeding, hut the posterior pair are much larger, and 

 longer, and of such strength that the locust is en- 

 abled hy their means to leap more than two hun- 

 dred times the length of its own body, which is 

 usually from two to three inches. Locusts, as the 

 writer of this article has seen them in the East, 

 are generally of a light brown or stone color, with 

 dusky spots on the corslet and wing cases; the 

 mouth and inside of the thighs tinctured -with blue, 

 and the wings with green, blue, or red. These 

 wings are of a delicate and beautiful texture ; and 

 in the fine fibres by which the transparency is 

 traversed, the Moslems of western Asia fancy that 

 they can decypher an Arabic sentence which sig- 

 nifies " We are the destroying army of God." 



The female locust lays about forty eggs, which 

 in appearance are not unlike oat-grains, but small- 

 er. She covers them with a viscid matter, by 

 which they are sometimes attached to blades of 

 grass, but are more usually deposited in the ground 

 For this purpose she prefers light sandy earths, 

 and will not leave the eggs iu contact with moist 

 or cultivated grounds, unless she has been brought 

 down on them by rain, wind or fatigue, and ren- 

 dered incapable of seeking a more eligible situa- 

 tion. Having performed this, the female dies ; ami 

 the eggs remain in the ground throughout the win- 

 ter. If much rain occurs, the wet spoils them 

 by destroying the viscid matter in which they are 

 enveloped, and which is essential to their preser- 

 vation. Heat also seems necessary to their pro. 

 duction, for the little worm which proceeds from 

 the egg, .sometimes appears so early as February, 

 and sometimes not until May, according, to the 

 state of the season. This, in the usual course be 

 comes a nymph, in which state it attains its full 

 growth in about twenty-four days. After having 

 for a few days abstained from food, it then bursts 

 its skin, comes forth a perfect a.umal, and imuie 

 diately begins to unfold and trim its wings with 

 the hinder feet. The insects which first attain 

 this state do not immediately fly off, but wait in the 

 neighborhood for those whose developement is 

 more tardy ; but when their army is formed they 

 take their flight from the district. 



To those who have not seen a flight of locusts, 

 it is difficult by description to convey an idea of 

 the appearance it presents. As seen approaching 

 in the distance it resembles a vast opaque cloud, 

 and as it advances v a clattering noise is heard, 

 which is occasioucd by the agitation and concus- 



sion of wings in their close phalanxes. When they 

 arrive they rill the air, like flakes of thick falling 

 snow ; ami we have known the bright and clear 

 sky of Chaldea, become darker than that of Lon- 

 don on some heavy November day. 



Wherever they alight every vegetable substance 

 disappears with inconceivable rapidity before them. 

 The most beautiful and highly cultivated lands as- 

 sume the appearance of a desert, and the trees stand 

 stripped of all their leavesas in the midst of win- 

 ter. After devouring the fruits, the herbage, anil 

 the leaves of trees, they attack the buds and the 

 bark, and do not even spare the thatch of the 

 houses. The most poisonous, caustic, or bitter 

 plants, as well as the juicy anil nutritive, arc 

 equally consumed ; and thus " the land is as the 

 Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a 

 desolate wilderness." It seems as if nothing could 

 appease their devouring hunger, and the energy 

 and activity they exhibit, and the rapidity of their 

 operations, almost exceed belief. Their depreda- 

 tions are not confined to the open air ; they scale 

 the walls, and penetrate to the granaries and houses. 

 They swarm from the cellar to the garret, and 

 within doors, and without, they are a terrible nui- 

 sance, for they are continually springing about, 

 and often, in consequence, give a person startling 

 raps, on different parts of the face, affording very 

 sensible evidence of the force with which they 

 leap; and as the mouth cannot be opened with- 

 out the danger of receiving a locust, it is impossi- 

 ble to converse or eat with comfort. When they 

 have settled themselves at night, the ground is 

 covered with them to a vast extent ; and in some 

 situations, they lie one above another several in- 

 ches thick. In travelling they are crushed be- 

 neath the feet of the horses; and the animals are 

 so terribly annoyed by the bouncing against them 

 in all directions of the insects they have disturbed, 

 that they snort with alarm, and become unwilling 

 to proceed. 



It is not merely the living presence of these in- 

 sects which is terrible, but new calamities arc oc- 

 casioned by their death, when the decomposition 

 of their bodies fills the air with pestilential miasma, 

 occasioning epidemic maladies, the ravages of 

 which are compared to those of the plague. Thus 

 famine and death follow in their train ; and instan- 

 ces are not of rare occurrence in the East, in which 

 villages and whole districts have been depopulated 

 by them. 



Under these circumstances it necessarily be- 

 comes an object of anxious attention, in the coun- 

 tries they are most accustomed to visit, either to 

 prevent them from alighting on the cultivated 

 grounds, or to drive them off or destroy them af- 

 ter they have descended. 



The impression is very general that noise fright- 

 ens these insect devastators, and prevents them 

 from alighting. When therefore, the people are 

 aware of the approach of their armies, every ket- 

 tle or other noisy instrument in the place is in re- 

 quisition, with which, and by shouts and screech- 

 es, men, women, and children unite in the endeav- 

 or to make the most horrible din in their power. 

 The scene would be truly laughable, from the 

 earnestness which every one exhibits in this strange 

 employment, were not all disposition to mirth 

 checked by the consciousness of the fearful con- 

 sequences of the invasion which it is thus endeav- 

 ored to avert. 



How far noise may really operate in preventing 

 their descent in ordinary circumstances, it is not 



easy to ascertain ; but on the approach of evening, 

 or when exhausted by their journey, nothing can 

 prevent them from alighting. They will then de- 

 scend even on the seas and rivers, of which some 

 striking instances are recorded. 



When a swarm has actually alighted, the means 

 employed to drive them off, are much the same 

 as those to prevent their descent, lint this is nev- 

 er attempted in wet weather, or until the sun has 

 absorbed the dew, as the locust is quite incapable 

 of Hying while its wings are wet. When the 

 swarm is large, or when it has come down on cul- 

 tivated grounds, no measure of destruction is prac- 

 ticable without sacrificing the produce ; but when 

 the Depredators have been driven to waste grounds 

 or happened in the first instance to descend upon 

 them, various modes of extirpation are resorted to, 

 of which the following is most effective: a large 

 trench is dug from three to four feet wide, and 

 about the same depth ; the off-side is lined with 

 people furnished with sticks and brooms, while 

 others form a semi-circle, which encloses the ex- 

 tremities of the trench and the troop of locusts, 

 which are then driven into the grave intended for 

 tlieni by the clamorous noise already described. 

 The party stationed on the other side push back 

 such insects as attempt to escape at the edges, 

 crusk them with their sticks and brooms, and 

 throw in the earth upon them. 



These insect devastators have fortunately a 

 great number of enemies. Birds, lizards, hogs, 

 foxes, and even frogs, devour a great number ; 

 a high wind, a cold rain, or a tempest destroys 

 millions of them. In the East they are used as an 

 article of food. In some parts they are dried 

 and pounded, and a sort of bread is made, which 

 is of much utility in bad harvests. They are sold 

 as common eatables in the Bazaar of Bagdad, and 

 the cooks of the East have various ways of pre- 

 paring tlum for use. 



SOOT DESTROYS CUT WORMS. 



Soot destroys or drives off from all plants of 

 the cabbage tribe, from pinks, and from other 

 plants, those common and voracious grubs of gar- 

 dens, the larva? of the moths of the family Noctu- 

 aihe. AfteJ being annoyed almost to despair, by 

 the ravages Df this grub, I resorted to the use of 

 soot, and this applied it: — I laid it dry, and near 

 an inch thick over the ground, and had it dug in. 

 — The plants were then planted from 20 to 25 in 

 a row, and so effectual was the soot that instead 

 of losing eight or ten plants in one row, as I be- 

 fore had done, I think I did not lose more than 

 that number in a bed of 200 or 300. In the grub's 

 tittacks on plants of the cabbage family, its habit 

 is to eat some nearly and others quite asunder, a 

 a little below the heart : it often greatly annoys 

 the farmers in their turnip fields. I have made 

 use of the same remedy since and have never 

 found it to fail. Last summer I was troubled with 

 the grub in a bed of pinks ; I then made some soot 

 water, and watered the bed well, and the bed was 

 soon freed from the grubs. The precise mode of 

 the soot's action on the grubs I cannot state: but 

 I believe that the ammoniacal matter which it con- 

 tains destroys some and disperses the remainder. 

 I have not found the soot injure the soil at all ; 

 and I name this because I had been told it would. 

 — Farmtr and Jlechanic. 



Three Important Tkings. — The three things most 

 difficult are — to keep a secret, to forget an injury, 

 and to make good use of leisure. 



