34 
WILD AMERICANS 
for several years. Most of the western states have 
invasions like this at times. 
“It’s very bad, really, because they will destroy ev¬ 
ery crop in sight, and the farmers lose thousands, 
even millions of dollars. Half an hour from now that 
field you see will be stripped clean.” 
“Goodness!” Mother exclaimed softly. 
Nobody was smiling now. Ginger looked at her 
uncle. 
“Are they—are they wild animals, Uncle Ely?” she 
asked. 
“Well, yes. Yes, they are. We don’t ordinarily 
think of them as animals, but as insects, but they are 
wild just the same. I’d rather have a dozen mountain 
lions on my farm than to have these flying enemies.” 
“I never knew before that a grasshopper could do 
any harm,” Billy Buck ventured, greatly interested. 
“A grasshopper can’t, Buck. But billions of grass' 
hoppers can. They are destructive through force of 
numbers. Numbers, remember that—not one, or one 
thousand, or even one million; but billions and bil¬ 
lions. Farmers can fight them with poison, and with 
traps, and other devices, but men can’t do much to 
ward off such hordes of flying enemies as we see 
today. 
