| Popis: |
Locust invasions were a problem common to many colonial settler societies, for whom agricultural development was crucial to success. Their impact on crops and pastures caused repeated losses and hardships for the nascent farming enterprises. In the southern lands of Argentina and Australia the initial hopes that bringing more land under cultivation, restoring the ‘balance of nature’, using disease organisms for biological control, or collective labour would solve the problem faded as swarms kept appearing. An increase in the frequency and intensity of plagues during the late nineteenth century created a fear that farming might become impossible and an urgency to find scientific solutions. The migrations of swarms across provincial boundaries and areas of cultivation propagated the risk of damage over wide geographic regions and into subsequent seasons. This led to government involvement in organising and funding collective responses and directing scientific research into locust ecology. |
