A PLAGUE.

Evening Star, Issue 3703, 5 January 1875, Page 3

A PLAGUE.

The following about grasshoppers is an extract from a letter written by a gentleman residing near Hay, on the Murrumbidgee, to a friend in Melbourne :—“ 9th November, 1874. We are now undergoing a perfect plague in the shape of grasshoppers, which are clearing everything before them, and sweeping the country bare of all vegetation, except some dry clover burr. They suddenly appeared one day while we were at lunch, and on hearing the children exclaim ‘ the yard is full of grasshoppers,’ we rushed out, to find them swarming like the thickest hive of bees, black over the fence, and in one short hour our garden (which we were proud of) was stripped—-all the vegetables, melons, &c,, cropped to the ground. We lost everything save $ few bags of cabbage which we cut away from them. Vines ruined, and such a yield of grapes as we expected ! Next, the trees ; and where the fruit proved too hard they ate it off by the stems ; and when it fell the ravenous pests below deit to the stones, which lie in blanched profusion under each tree. Inside as well as out the buildings are full of these pests, which come into the house by every chink, and eat everything and anything—clothes, mattrasSes, that in the confusion were left unjpoved for a day, were riddled , paper and lining on the walls, chintz on the sofa, table covers, kid boots, <fec., were all damaged or destroyed. Nothing I can write will convey any idea of their number. Those that have been washed in or jumped into the river have been going down for days in black masses. We took them out of each room in the house in iron bucketsful, and three large barrow loads weie taken out of each tank in the garden, and although the plague is abating slightly, the tanks are full again, and the carcases between the walls enough to make one ill.”