STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 151 



of San Francisco with all its amassed wealth of $217,000,000. In the 

 report of the Entomological Commission occurs this beautiful and 

 forcible passage : 



No one who has not witnessed the ravaging power of locusts can I'ully conceive of it. The 

 organization and habits of the insect adniiraijly fit it for its terrible work. Muscular, grega- 

 rious, with powerful jaws and ainjile digestive and reproductive systems; strong of wing and 

 assisted in flight by numerous air-sacs that buoy it up; all these traits make it the terrible 

 engine of destruction which history relates. Insignificant individually, but mighty collectively, 

 lowists fall upon a country like a'plague or blight. The farmer has plowed and planted. He 

 cultivates in hope, watching his growing grain in graceful wave-like motion, wafted to and fro 

 bv the warm summer winds. The green begins to golden ; tiie jmljiy kernels fill the grain- 

 heads where yesterday the flowers threw out their yellow antlers, a tri])le banner of triumph 

 over the elements of earth and air; the harvest is at hand. Joy lightens his labors as the fruit 

 of his past toil is about to be i-ealized. The day breaks with a smiling sun that sends his ripen- 

 inw rays through promising fields and laden orchards. Kine aiul fowl and beasts of burden are 

 sleek with plenty; all the earth seems vocal with joy. The day grows. Suddenly the sun's 

 face is darkened, and clouds obscure the sky. The" joy of the morning gives way to ominous 

 fear, soon becoming consternation! The hated locust swoops down upon his fields, and ere eve 

 all is a dead waste! 



LIKES AND DISLIKES. 



The business of locust life is preeminently eating and procreating. 

 They have no holidays and never exhibit any playfulness. Through 

 life they attend strictly to business. No animals cat more compared 

 with size. Provided with an immense crop, that in earlier life occu- 

 pies nearly the entire space within its skeleton, they lay in rations 

 for their long journeys like a wise commissary. With emptied haver- 

 sacks they drop down from the sky guided by their instincts, always 

 upon abundant holds. Though extremely gluttonous they have 

 their preferences. When able to choose, vegetables and cereals are 

 their main stay. Turnips, carrots, and cabbage are_ devoured with 

 avidity. They are exceedingly fond of onions, leaving nothing but 

 the outer dry rind. Beets and potatoes are not chosen, but if all else 

 is consumed they dig potatoes and other root crops like gophers. Corn 

 is a great favorite, but broom corn and sorghum are often untouched. 

 Sometimes green tobacco kills them, but, with true civilized taste, 

 they relish an old quid or stub of a cigar. Buckwheat, flax, Hunga- 

 rian grass, and the leaves of fruit trees are chosen. Strawberries, 

 blackberries, and raspberries are evidently appreciated. Wheat and 

 oats are liked, but often rye and sugar cane are left. Leguminous 

 plants, like leaves and peas, are avoided to the last; then the pods 

 are eaten first. Professor Dawson wisely suggests that this avoidance 

 of the leguminous plants may account for their great predominance 

 on the great plains and on the Pacific Coast, as a single family will 

 illustrate. Of the genus of astragalus, seven species only are found 

 east of the Mississippi, while sixty-five or seventy have been detected 

 in the West. Of forest trees, the red cedar, honey locust, elm, and 

 oak are often untouched; all others are liked. The red cedar so often 

 escapes that it has received the name of "the ironclad evergreen." 

 Of weeds, the dogfennel (viaruta) and birdweed (polygomirn. convolvu- 

 las) are well liked. The smartweed (polygonum hydropiper) is liked 

 above all. Cocklebur (s<rw77iarutm), sunflower (h elia nt I ms), and purs- 

 lane, and particularly the milkweeds {asdcpias) and dogbanes (apocry- 

 mim) are often untouched. The weed of all others untouched is a 

 low, creeping, glossy pigweed {ainarantus blitoidcs). But when vege- 

 table food becomes scarce, and their greed is not satisfied, locusts will 

 gnaw the dry bark from trees, the lint from fences and buildings. 

 They will eat clothing, refuse from the kitchens and stables, putrid 



