82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



was a very useful volume of 177 pages, published in 1881 (during thr 

 interval when Riley was not connected with the Department of Agri- 

 culture). I cannot see how he induced the government to print this 

 bulletin, but, like all other entomologists, I am glad that he succeeded, 

 for it is very useful. A seventh bulletin, entitled " Insects Injurious 

 to Forest and Shade Trees," by Doctor Packard, was also published 

 in 1 881, and this was afterwards elaborated into the Fifth Report of 

 the Commission, a very large and useful volume. 



There can be no doubt that the establishment of the Commission 

 was a very desirable move on the part of the government. The situa- 

 tion in the western States appeared to be critical, and while at the 

 present time it seems likely that the locusts w'ould have disappeared 

 in 1877 had the Commission not been founded, and while it seems 

 improbable that later serious locust incursions would have occurred 

 had the Commission's investigations not been made, its creation was 

 not only a valuable psychological move, since it at once suggested 

 beneficial results with a sound basis of scientific investigation, but 

 was a definite movement which recognized the value of scientific 

 investigation of such problems and was a real encouragement to 

 scientific workers as well as to farmers. 



It is difficult now to realize the conditions that existed in these 

 States in the autumn of 1876. While return flights of the locusts 

 towards their permanent breeding grounds in the northwest occurred, 

 the significance of these flights was not realized by the people gen- 

 erally, and business stagnation and agricultural despair were wide- 

 spread, while actual starvation threatened the inhabitants of large 

 stretches of country. Relief organizations had been formed and large 

 sums of money had been contributed to the relief of the crop-depen- 

 dent jx)pulation of several States. The calamity for two seasons had 

 assumed almost national proportions. The loss and the distress were 

 accompanied, as is usual in great calamities, by a rupture of the moral 

 sense on the part of many. There were robberies and lootings but, 

 it is good to say, very few crimes of other character. The attitude 

 of the very religious people was interesting. Sermons were preached 

 urging that the calamity was a dispensation of Providence as a pun- 

 ishment for the sins of the people, and days of fasting and prayer 

 were appointed in the hope that the anger of God might be apjjeased. 



The story is told that the Governor of Missouri, when asked by 

 the church people to set a date for a day of fasting and prayer, con- 

 sulted with Professor Riley on the subject and was told that the flight 

 of the adult from the infested regions would probably begin the first 

 week in June, 1875. Therefore, the wise governor was said to have 



