Friday / Weekend Open Line


Beginning on this date in 1874, the largest swarm of Rocky Mountain locusts ever recorded blackened the skies from the Dakotas to Texas and stripped farm fields in minutes. The swarm is estimated to have been 1,800 miles long and 110 miles wide. The locusts not only ate crops but ate the wool off of living sheep and even brought trains to a halt. While not as large, similar swarms continued for several years. Then, in one of the greatest ecological mysteries, they simply disappeared, never to return. Today’s farmers don’t have to contend with such massive attacks but still have a large variety of pests to contend with. To ward off such damage, U.S. farmers use $11.5 billion worth of pesticides each year. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.


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