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The Grasshopper Plague of 1874

grasshopper

Source unknown, Found in Roots magazine, 2:2 (Winter 1973-4), p. 24


"...the fact is crops are almost entirely destroyed, and we have doubt if even grain enough will be cut and threshed in the county to make straw enough to fill a bed tick. The 'hoppers are leaving but it is now too late to plant crops for this year. It is a serious question with most of the settlers as to how they will obtain a livelihood during the next fifteen months."

—The Prairie Schooner (Marshall, Minn.), July 9, 1874.