THRIFTY INDIANS

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20961, 15 September 1933, Page 6

THRIFTY INDIANS

— — - turkeys bought to eat grasshoppers FIGHTING A PLAGUE WASHINGTON, August 5. A story of thrift displayed by Indians of the Navajo Reservation em. ployed in a civilian conservation camp at Shiprock. New Mexico,, who, after obtaining money to j eradicate grasshoppers, bought 1100 j

young turkeys to eat the grasshoppers, was related to-day in a report to Mr Robert Fechner, Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The story reads:— "We have all heard of the man who met the wolf at the door and appeared the next morning with a new fur coat, but the Indians at the Northern Navajo Reservation have gone this one better. "The wolf here appeared in the form of a grasshopper plague. The alfalfa fields were disappearing, peach trees were being stripped, melon fields were being devastated, and it looked as" though the grasshoppers were going to take complete control. "The superintendent, Mr McCray, J applied for help from the Emer- [

gency Conservation Relief funds. ' He was given 1400 dollars to help i get rid of grasshoppers. "Instead of poisoning them, he 1 put on 1100 young turkeys. These < turkeys are being herded from t place to place where the grasshopper plague is the worst and as a result the turkeys are getting fat i and the grasshoppers are disappear- . ing. The melon fields and the lucerne fields have been to a large extent saved. About November 1 these tur- . ? r , e going to appear on the tables of the Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and, as a result of the good work of the turkeys, along with them will appear sweet potatoes, 40 truckloads of jnelonSj and all the trimmings, and

then there will be enoujjh Wjlßa left to start a brood for Navajo people' have they ran Jkeep