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Template:Did you know nominations/Locust Plague of 1874

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by RoySmith (talk) 00:57, 6 November 2022 (UTC)

DYK toolbox

Locust Plague of 1874

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Cartoon of Kansas farmer fighting locusts
Cartoon of Kansas farmer fighting locusts

Created by SL93 (talk). Self-nominated at 06:49, 1 November 2022 (UTC).

  • Hi SL93, can you advise on the reliability of historynet.com? The most recent discussion on it I could find (Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_379#historynet.com) doesn't fill me with confidence, though they do seem to be publishers of history magazines in the US. Unfortunately I am not familiar with the magazines but if they are generally reliable and the same people create content for both then it might be OK?

A few minor bits I picked up in the text

  • There's a minor grammar issue with "The now extinct locusts were in piles of up to over a foot"
  • "From 1874 to 1875, the U.S. Army handed out thousands of clothing and other items" - missing word
  • "In the spring of 1875, much of the hatched locust eggs died due to frost." - doesn't read right to me, is "many" better?
  • I think your last three sentences about aid in Kansas would sit better before the sentence about the eventual extinction of the locust.
Will complete the review once we've discussed the sourcing - Dumelow (talk) 09:24, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
Sorry, couple of other bits. You should convert the square miles to km2 for a worldwide audience and probably mention the country in the hook - Dumelow (talk) 09:26, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
Dumelow Only two people participated in that discussion - the person who asked about the reliability and one other person. The response says that HistoryNet has a "general lack of citations (inline or bibliography), the typical lack of bylines, and lack of precision in wording". Those aren't even requirements for a source to be reliable in Wikipedia standards. The source is currently used in over 500 articles. This article does have a byline - "Chuck Lyons, based in Rochester, N.Y., is a retired newspaper editor who now writes freelance articles for Wild West and other publications." It's not just about the source, but also the author. Chuck Lyons wrote for the U.S. Naval Institute and that page says - "Mr. Lyons is a retired newspaper editor and a freelance writer who has written extensively on historical subjects. His work has appeared in national and international periodicals, and he was the 2008 winner of the Harryman Dorsey Award for “an outstanding article on Colonial American History." SL93 (talk) 10:37, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
I can't find the grammar issue. I also don't know what the missing word is. SL93 (talk) 10:49, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
HistoryNet is reliable, but I still added more sources. SL93 (talk) 11:16, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
Hi SL93, thanks for the detail on HistoryNet, that sounds fine to me (the USNI is very respectable) - there's no need to replace citations to it. My points on the text were minor and won't hold up DYK approval. Maybe a ENGVAR thing but I wouldn't say "up to over a foot", it'd be "up to a foot" or "over a foot". Perhaps similar but "thousands of clothing and other items" sounds a little strange. No biggie though. Article was created today, exceeds minimum length and I found no issue with overly close paraphrasing. Hooks are interesting (I prefer ALT0), mentioned in the article and cited (AGF on book sources are offline or I can't access the right page of on Google). A QPQ has been carried out. Looks fine to me - Dumelow (talk) 12:36, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
Dumelow How do you feel about using an image? ALT0a ... that trains lost traction during the Locust Plague of 1874 (cartoon pictured) in the United States due to the tracks being "slick with grasshopper guts"? SL93 (talk) 19:06, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
Hi SL93, it certainly looks old but is there anything explicitly stating it was published in 1875? The cartoon isn't very clear at DYK scale, if the contrast could be improved it might be better or perhaps a crop might help - Dumelow (talk) 19:19, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
Ah, just found the image description page at the source attributing it to Henry Worrall (artist) so that should be fine - Dumelow (talk) 19:21, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
Dumelow I cropped it to the main action. I also made it "farmer" instead of "farmers" in the caption. Despite the title of the cartoon, there is one farmer fighting while the rest look dumbfounded. SL93 (talk) 19:29, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
Fine by me - Dumelow (talk) 19:35, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
Comment from nominator: I would prefer to have the image if possible, and not the quirky slot. SL93 (talk) 00:23, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
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