This week, 93 years after a flock of sea gulls from over Great Salt Lake providentially saved Brigham Young and his Utah Mormons from crop-devouring hordes of crickets, another aerial attack is under way against these insects. On an airfield near Elko, Nev., beside two small, light, open-cockpit biplanes, loll Department of Agriculture pilots, waiting impatiently like R.A.F. pursuit pilots for reports that the enemy has been spotted.
When word comes, ground crews rush out to the planes, load them with bombing materials—a mixture of bran and sodium fluosilicate. Into the Nevada-Utah mountains the pilots fly until they see below them tumultuous...
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