March, 1923 
i 
107 
A JACK RABBIT DRIVE IN UTAH 
ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF. HAY AND GRAIN ARE DESTROYED ANNU¬ 
ALLY BY THESE PROLIFIC PESTS INFESTING THE MORMON PRAIRIES 
! 
LMOST everyone is familiar 
with the great trials and ob¬ 
stacles which the Mormon pio¬ 
neers had to surmount in the 
settlement of their Promised Land, all 
of which they finally overcame. In the 
spring of 1848, there were five thousand 
acres under cultivation in Great Salt 
Lake Valley. Nine hundred acres had 
been sown with winter wheat which was 
just beginning to sprout, and there was 
great rejoicing among the settlers. But 
there came a catastrophe as unlooked 
for as it was terrible — the cricket 
plague. 
In May and June the pests rolled in 
legions down the mountain sides destroy¬ 
ing the fields of growing grain. The 
tender sprouts fell an easy prey to then- 
appetite, and the ground over which they 
had passed looked as if scorched by fire. 
Men, women and children tried to heat 
them back, but the task seemed hopeless. 
Some dug ditches around their farms and 
turned water into them, others burned 
them in fires, but still the crickets pre¬ 
vailed. Despite all that could be done by 
the settlers, their hopes of a harvest was 
fast disappearing, and with that hope, 
the hope of life itself. 
They were 
rescued, as they 
believed, by a 
miracle. 
In the midst of 
the work of ruin, 
when it seemed as 
if nothing could 
stay the work of 
destruction, great 
flocks of gulls ap¬ 
peared, filling the 
heavens with their 
white wings and 
plaintive cries, and 
settled upon the 
half - ruined fields. 
At first it looked 
as if they had come 
to help the crick¬ 
ets, but they had 
come to prey upon 
the m. All day 
long they gorged 
themselves and 
disgorged, then 
feasted again and 
again until the pests were vanquished 
and the harvest saved. The birds then 
returned to the islands in Great Salt 
Lake, leaving the settlers shedding tears 
of joy and thanksgiving over their timely 
deliverance. 
Rome had her sacred geese; Utah 
would have her sacred gulls, forever to 
be held in honor as the heaven-sent mes¬ 
sengers that saved the pioneers. I his, 
then, is the reason of Sea Gull Monu¬ 
ment, which occupies a prominent posi- 
By HARRY S. SMITH 
tion in Temple Square, Salt Lake City, 
crowned with two gulls, finished in gold 
leaf. 
But while the crickets come no more, 
the gull is still protected, and, in the 
spring, when the farmers are plowing 
their fields, they come in from the lake 
and follow the plowman back and forth 
across the fields, gathering every worm 
and insect they find. They have become 
so tame that they will rest on the backs 
of the horses, and in many instances 
have sat on the plow while in motion. 
It is a beautiful sight to see them scat¬ 
tered over the fields, their grayish-white 
bodies having the appearance of snow 
at a distance. 
From early spring to late in the fall 
they are found in great numbers. When 
the fields are brown with ripened grain, 
they swoop down and rid them of every 
insect, and when it is harvested they 
follow the reapers and feast upon the 
scattered grain. And although it has 
been a great many years since the crick¬ 
ets came, the gulls are protected, and it 
is one of the cardinal sins of the State 
of Utah to kill one of them, there being 
a heavv fine attached to the offense. 
* 
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f-* 
The far-flung line of rabbit hunters 
A LTHOUGH the cricket plague was 
of short duration, there still was 
another pest the Mormons had to con¬ 
tend with, and which exists to the pres¬ 
ent day, despite the strenuous efforts put 
forth by the state to obliterate it. Of 
late years it seems to have become more 
acute, and the State has appealed to the 
Department of Agriculture for relief. 
Thousands of dollars worth of grai*n 
and hay are destroyed annually by jack 
rabbits which literally infest the prairies. 
In the spring after the ranchers have 
sown their grain, the fields are visited 
by the rabbits as soon as the first green 
sprouts appear above the ground, en¬ 
tirely denuding it in an amazingly short 
time, which necessitates replanting, and 
in many cases the fields have to be guard¬ 
ed day and night. Little wonder, then, 
there are so many deserted ranches in 
certain parts of the State, especially 
along the northern shores of Great Salt 
Lake. However, after the grain has at¬ 
tained a growth of from five to ten 
inches, the rabbits do not bother it 
any more, but seem contented with the 
grasses that grow in such profusion on 
the prairies. 
But, in winter, when snow covers the 
ground, they seem to appear in even 
greater numbers, and it is no unusual 
sight to see from one hundred and fifty 
to five hundred of them in a single bunch 
making their way across the fields to the 
rancher’s haystacks. The writer has 
seen a twenty-ton stack which had been 
overturned by the constant visits of the 
rabbits. They will completely encircle a 
stack, eating on a line even with the 
snow, and, in an amazingly short time, 
cut a circle around the stack, which 
gradually grows 
smaller, just as a 
beaver gnaws a 
tree, causing the 
stack to topple 
over on its side. 
After the stack 
falls over, the rab¬ 
bits fairly swarm 
over it, and, in the 
course of time, by 
their frequent 
visits, have so de¬ 
filed the hay that 
the horses and cat¬ 
tle of the ranchers 
refuse to touch it. 
No wonder, then, 
that the ranchers 
become frantic in 
their efforts to rid 
themselves of the 
pest, which no one 
seems to be able to 
cope with. 
They have re¬ 
peatedly appealed 
to the State for aid, and although it has 
done everything it possibly can, instead 
of diminishing the rabbits seem to have 
multiplied a thousand fold. Box Elder 
county officials have offered a bounty of 
five cents on each pair of ears brought 
in, and although this has been a keen 
incentive to many hunters, who have 
brought in thousands of ears, still the 
rabbits do not seem to diminish. Pois¬ 
oned grain has been tried, but as it is 
(Continued on page 136 ) 
