AGRICULTURE. 105 



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A government like that of the first Napoleon would not have 

 waited a second, third and fourth time for the wide waste and devas- 

 tation that has occurred in California, Utah and the Northwestern 

 States, before putting forth its full power to arrest the progress of 

 the evil. We do not know: Ave have no sure foundation any- 

 where. Scarcely any proposition that has been promulgated when 

 brought within the focus of critical analysis, will stand the test. 

 Their native home in any part of the world, where is it? The 

 limits of their range, who can tell ? I have ventured to give Ara- 

 bia and northern Africa as among its peculiar native haunts. 



But there are writers, and those of eminence, too, who assert 

 that even in Africa the locust is not indigenous, but came thence 

 from the deserts of Arabia. Go to Arabia, and they say that they 

 came from beyond the Persian Gulf. And, finally, we are referred 

 to the deserts, of unexplored Tartary as their original and sole 

 source, and that they probably came across Behring's Straits to 

 this country with aboriginal Indians; which is about tantamount 

 to an acknowledgment of total ignorance, as it is more than ques- 

 tionable if all the locusts in the world sprang from one Adam and 

 Eve pair in far-off Tartary. 



Again, they say, the locust can never pass the Mississippi river, 

 because they have never been known to do so. A very good reason, 

 but not conclusive. They have passed nearer it this season than 

 they ever before, and a few hours of northwest wind would carry 

 them all over northern Illinois. Their progeny might not flourish 

 there the next season, but it is impossible to see why locusts 

 hatched in central Minnesota, Towa and Missouri might not pass 

 that river in a few hours' time, the wind favoring. 



But, they say in reply, that it does not follow because a man 

 can jump a stream ten feet wide, that therefore he can jump one 

 thirty feet wide. There could not be a better example of the dif- 

 ference between an illustration and a demonstration. The flaw in 

 this parallel is that our lively, saltatory locust, being a juniper 

 horn, indulges largely in that kind of pastime. He is not obliged 

 to clear his thirty foot stream at one leap, but can take just as 

 many as he likes at his own convenient leisure. If he can fly from 

 Tartary all over Europe, from Montana to Missouri, from Africa 

 across the Mediterranean or halfway across the Atlantic, why not 

 across the Mississippi river? 



I admit, however, the full force of the reasoning that never 

 having passed a certain limit in the past is the best possible guar- 

 antee for the future. From the same line of reasoning I am also 

 disposed to take a hopeful view of the present situation. The evil 

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