WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 79 



Professor Riley at that time was the State Entomologist of Mis- 

 souri, and his Seventh Annual Report, published in 1874, contained 

 many pages devoted to the migratory grasshopper and detailed many 

 original observations he had made on its life history in the neighbor- 

 ing State of Kansas. In the preface to this report he showed that 

 the damage done by the grasshoppers during that year amounted to 

 many millions, and he suggested that in the case of this insect, the 

 chinch bug, the Cotton-worm and others which brought about national 

 damage, a national commission should be appointed. He further 

 stated that preliminary steps had been taken by leading scientific men 

 " to memorialize Congress to create such a commission, the members 

 to be chosen by the Council of the National Academy of Science, 

 and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury." 



In view of the present standing of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, the immense sums that are devoted to its support, and the 

 wonderful results it has achieved, the following paragraph from this 

 preface of Riley's, written in 1874, is interesting : 



We have, it is true, a Department of Agriculture which, if under intelligent 

 and scientific control, might employ the large sums it now fritters away in the 

 gratuitous distribution of seeds, to better advantage in organizing and sendmg 

 out such a commission ; but the people have lost all hope of getting much good 

 out of that institution as at present organized, or so long as the character of its 

 head and management depends on political whim or fancy. 



It does not appear that the National Academy of Sciences was 

 ever consulted by any department of the government in regard to 

 this matter, and, unfortunately, I do not know the names of the men 

 referred to by Riley in his 1874 report as " leading scientific men " ; 

 and, although damage by the Rocky Mountain locust continued in 

 1875, it was not until October, 1876, that, at the invitation of the 

 Governor of Minnesota, a conference of the executives of those 

 States and Territories which had been suffering and of scientific men 

 interested in the subject was held at Omaha, Nebraska. This confer- 

 ence passed 12 resolutions, the most significant one recommending 

 that $25,000 be appropriated to the United States Geological Survey to 

 pay the salaries and expenses of a commission consisting of three ento- 

 mologists and two western men, to be appointed by the Chief of the 

 Survey, the duties of the Commission being to carry on an investi- 

 gation of the locust. 



It appears that in the session of the Federal Congress in the winter 

 of 1875-76 two bills were introduced. The first (Senate Bill 158) 

 was introduced in the Senate by Senator Harvey of Kansas, and in 

 the House by Mr. Patterson of Colorado. This bill authorized the 



