The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro.

  • Munro, Aeneas.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    why do we find it thus ? Because God in the absence of man has been for centuries farming the land. Nature has been at work. The elephant, the buffalo, and all kinds of buck have been doing the work of grazing, keeping down, trampling and manuring the herbage, and to these may we not add the locusts, which almost play the part of grass fires? And then the moles, ants, worms, etc., have been at work turning over the soil and enriching it in various ways. And many others of God’s creatures we can think of who have been acting as God’s farming agents. 66. But when man comes to take the land and win it for himself, for his own particular crops, for his own particular beasts of the field, then these nature’s farmers must give way, at least those that interfere with man’s way of farming. They have been doing their work for centuries and centuries, and have done it well, and man enters upon the results of their labours, and let us hope not without some feeling of gratitude to these farmers of the past. God has made the earth for man, and through centuries does He watch over the land and keep it that it may be for the use of man ; but He means man to win it by the sweat of his brow, and part of the struggle consists in exterminating these old farming hands of nature, and according to man’s energy and perseverance so shall man’s enjoyment of the land be. Prayer we want, that we may beseech God to save us the trouble of subduing these locusts by sending a strong wind to blow them into the sea. But we need to pray to God that we may have wisdom to conceive the best means for attacking them, sufficient sacrifice to give of our wealth that these means may be carried out, and energy and perseverance to struggle until they be exterminated.—Yours truly, Gerald C. Bailey. Some of the above ideas are rather far-fetched and illogical, but the conclusion finishes up rather better. 67. Cyprus devastated by locusts for 250 years.—It may be useful to give here one illustration of the disastrous effects which the plague of locusts brings on a country. Fortunately, the case in point is perfectly clear. The history of the island of Cyprus is well known and perfectly authentic. Cyprus is an island of some 4000 square miles, situated in the Mediterranean, and it has always been of considerable importance. It was and is picturesque ; it had woodlands, fertile fields, and fine valleys. Its Olympian chain of mountains contained copper, gold, silver, and a considerable variety of precious stones. Accordingly, its important commercial value did not in ancient times escape the notice of the Phoenicians, who were the great miners and traders of that remote period, and ruled the markets and merchandise of the world at that time. But in process of time the Greeks replaced the Phoenicians, and they, after building important cities in it, were replaced by the Egyptians, who in turn gave place to the Persians, then it came under the sway of the Arabians, afterwards it became Roman, and in 1171 the Crusaders, under Richard 1., conquered it, and
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