DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0415
LOCUSTS
369
several persons along its edges, provided with brooms, and
such like things, while another numerous set of people
form a, semicircle, that takes in both ends of the trench,
and encompasses the locusts, and by making the noise above-
mentioned, drive them into the trench; out of which, if
they attempt to escape, those on the edges are to sweep
them back, and then crush them with their brooms and
stakes, and bury them, by throwing in the earth again.
But when they have begun to fly, there should be horse-
men on the watch in the fields, who, on any appearance of
the swarm taking wing, should immediately alarm the neigh-
bourhood by a certain signal, that they might come and
fright tbern from their lands, by all sorts of noise; and if
tired with flying, they happen to pitch on a waste piece of
land, it will be very easy to kill them with sticks and brooms
in the evening, or early in the morning, while they are
wet with the dew, or any time of the day, in rainy weather,
for then they are not able to fly.
It has been already noticed, that if the weather be cold
or wet in autumn, they generally hide themselves in secret
places, where they lay their eggs, and then die; hence great
care should be taken at this time, when the ground is freed
of its crop, to destroy them, before they lay their eggs.
In the month of September, 1/48, certain intelligence
was received, that several swarms of locusts came out of
Wallachia into Transylvania, through the usual inlets, and
took possession of a tract of land in the neighbourhood of
Clausberg, near three miles in length; where it was not
possible to save the millet and Turkish wheat from these
devourers.
The eggs of these animals, which have been preserved in
dry mould, have produced nothing; but those that have
been preserved in mould moistened with water from time
to time, gave early in the spring of 1749, some of these
grasshoppers. The little ones were, soon after they came
vol. v, 2 b
369
several persons along its edges, provided with brooms, and
such like things, while another numerous set of people
form a, semicircle, that takes in both ends of the trench,
and encompasses the locusts, and by making the noise above-
mentioned, drive them into the trench; out of which, if
they attempt to escape, those on the edges are to sweep
them back, and then crush them with their brooms and
stakes, and bury them, by throwing in the earth again.
But when they have begun to fly, there should be horse-
men on the watch in the fields, who, on any appearance of
the swarm taking wing, should immediately alarm the neigh-
bourhood by a certain signal, that they might come and
fright tbern from their lands, by all sorts of noise; and if
tired with flying, they happen to pitch on a waste piece of
land, it will be very easy to kill them with sticks and brooms
in the evening, or early in the morning, while they are
wet with the dew, or any time of the day, in rainy weather,
for then they are not able to fly.
It has been already noticed, that if the weather be cold
or wet in autumn, they generally hide themselves in secret
places, where they lay their eggs, and then die; hence great
care should be taken at this time, when the ground is freed
of its crop, to destroy them, before they lay their eggs.
In the month of September, 1/48, certain intelligence
was received, that several swarms of locusts came out of
Wallachia into Transylvania, through the usual inlets, and
took possession of a tract of land in the neighbourhood of
Clausberg, near three miles in length; where it was not
possible to save the millet and Turkish wheat from these
devourers.
The eggs of these animals, which have been preserved in
dry mould, have produced nothing; but those that have
been preserved in mould moistened with water from time
to time, gave early in the spring of 1749, some of these
grasshoppers. The little ones were, soon after they came
vol. v, 2 b