LOCUSTS IN RUSSIA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume vii, Issue 1142, 8 October 1880, Page 2

LOCUSTS IN RUSSIA.

The Russian newspapers report that much mischief is being done to the crops in South Russia by locusts and other insect pests. Tn the district of Rasachs an aren of over 400 kilometres has been devastated in this way. Upwards of 5,000 men were daily employed in the work of extirpation, fully 8,000 kilogrammes of locusts being gathered every day. On the railway from Tiflis t» Poti the locusts lay so thick on the line that the trains were obstructed. The Videonwsti says that the steppes of Don have been swept bare of all vegetation, as if a fire had passed over the land. Fourteen companies of soldiers are employed in the Odessa district in destroying these insect plagues. The mischief is not confined to the South ; swarms of locusts have been observed also in the northern governments. A huge swarm passed by Moscow in the middle of June, at an elevation of from 70 to 100 feet.

Printers errors are very funny at times. In au American journal Lately, there appeared an advertisement notifying that a certain troupe of British blondes had been two years on the road without clothing. This statement astonished the public, and roused the ire of the " British blondes," who wrathfully demanded au immediate explanation of such a statement. The original copy was sent for by the beleagured editor, when it was found to have beeu written "two years on the road without closing." A considerable difference, you i observe — although the aggrieved parties were '• blondes." French ladies seem to have hit upon a new kind of sport, viz, frog-shooting. The arm they chiefly affect is a steel crossbow, from which a dart may be discharged with sufficient force to transfix the most toughhided frog at a range of 20 feet. By means of a silken cord the pointed and slightly-barbed , missile is attached to the breech of the crossbow, so that the successful marks woman, having shot a frog, can haul the victim to her. From five to six brace of frogs are said to constitute a good average bagi The hind legs, fried in butter, find favour with. Parisian gourmets.