A LOCUST PLAGUE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1681, 18 May 1904, Page 79 (Supplement)

A LOCUST PLAGUE.

; UNIQUE EXPERIENCE IN INDIA. Mr W. C. Badden, who occupied a position on the staff of W. M. Bannatyne and Co., Ltd:, Wellington, for some years, and severed his conection with that firm to take up missionary work in India, writing to a friend from Poona, under date March 21st, 1904, gives an interesting account of a visitation of locusts. He says:—

Locusts have been prevalent in many parts, and have been doing extensive damage. They made their appearance in gatara (forty miles from here) recently, and a gentleman writing from that quarter says: ‘‘Last week there passed over gatara two or three swarms of locusts; but they were only the precursors of the terrible flight which passed through this station on the 20tli and 21st inst. On the evening of Saturday, at 4 o’clock, the locusts made their appearance, going from east to west, and as the evening approached: myriads and myriads of these red creatures began to settle down to rest for the night. No one, however, had the slightest notion of the magnitude of the swarm, or the extent of the damage they would, cause during the night. The first report on Sunday morning was’ that the roads were blocked up by branches of trees falling: across them, that the carriages from the’station were detained, and that traffic was at w standstill. The cause of this was the locusts. At 7 a.m., the locusts started on their onward: course of destruction, taking tho same direction as on the previous- evening. It was then that one realised the awful immen-sity-of the flight. As the day advanced; ’ the stream, swelled. The main body, thick, enough to give a good shade, occuoied about one mile in breadth. The ex'ent of the swarm breadthwise was four miles. A perfect sheet of red locusts was ,on the ground, and a thick cloud of them passing, overhead, every leaf covered by them made the whole place as though it was one mass of red insects. There - were young, and old crowded in their fields to drive the locusts away by . beating tins and. making other hideous noises. But they shouted and shouted

until they could shout no more, and sat , down exhaused gaping at the vastness, the immensity, the infinity of the flight. During last Sunday vast trees—mango wild fig:,; etc.—varying from* ten to twenty feet, anrL-evon more in circumference, trees that, had: withstood! - successfully many a violent storm, groaned under the - weight of the locusts* yielded like rubber, and" came down with a crash. But what is most surprising, nay, almost incredible, is - that babul trees* which resist, the: sharp axe of the bixshfeller, and even - cactus; - were not proof against these creatures-; There is- not a single babul : tree in the course followed by the locusts but is a monument, with branches hanging' dowm broken, bearing testimony to the;frightful devastation caused by them. At a modest estimate, there must have been - three million: tons of locusts about. They were-flying at the rate of about seven. miles : an: hour, and they took, eight . hours- in. passing.” When: at Mahablesliwai*, about; three weeks-ago, I came in contact with, these locusts. They were so thick in; some ■ places that it took me all.my, time to. cycle through them. They : visited our, garden, and: stripped, it in a very short time. The sight was one of a; life-time.