CHAPTER II 



THE ALLIES OF THE RED-LEGGED GRASSHOPPER: 



ORTHOPTERA 



The poetry of earth is never dead : 



When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, 



And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 



From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead ; 



That is the Grasshopper's — he takes the lead 



In summer luxury, — he has never done 



With his delights. 



Keats 



The Rocky Mountain Grasshopper. Though the common 

 red-legged grasshopper is widely distributed throughout the 

 United States, it has not attracted so much attention as the 

 Rocky Mountain grasshopper, for its effects on agriculture 

 have not been so marked. The latter has the remarkable 

 habit of migrating from its habitat on the dry plains east of 

 the Rocky Mountains, destroying in a few hours the labors 

 of the farmer for several months. Not only are growing crops 

 devoured, but every green thing is attacked, leaving the 

 country as bare as if a fire had swept over it. The grass- 

 hoppers show a tendency to become gregarious (having the 

 habit of associating in groups) from the beginning of their 

 life as nymphs, but their migrations are not generally begun 

 before they are at least half grown. These hordes proved 

 so destructive to the agricultural district of the Middle West 

 from 1873 to 1877 that a commission was appointed by the 

 government to study their habits and to report upon ways 

 and means for checking their devastations. 



Control of Grasshoppers. Many machines have been con- 

 structed to capture the various kinds of grasshoppers when 



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