42 



Locusts in the Western States, which fully corroborates any expressions that we have used 

 above : — 



"The Western Grasshoppers. — Commissioner-of-Agriculture Watts has issued a 

 synopsis of information received concerning the extent of suffering from the grasshopper 

 plague, which we copy, somewhat condensed : 



"First. — The area of this visitation comprises a zone 200 to 225 miles wide, extending 

 from the settlements of Southern Dakota, through Nebraska and Kansas, over 500 miles in 

 length, and inclining to south. A few western counties of Iowa aud Minnesota report injuries. 

 The extent of territory visited by these insects in 1874 very considerably exceeds 100,000 

 square miles. 



" Second. — The grasshopper district west of Missouri embraces population of Kansas, Ne- 

 braska and Southern Dakota, amounting to over 500,000 in 1870, with a large increment 

 since. Including counties east of the Missouri in Iowa and Minnesota more or less affected 

 by the pl:igue, I think it not extravagant to assign 750,000 as the approximate population of 

 these districts. 



" Third. — In Kansas, cases of total destitution in 50 counties reported v.ary from 40 to 

 2,000 ; reports from counties not in this list show injuries as severe as in any others. The 

 average of such cases 555 in each county. These do not include cases of partial destitution, 

 which, in some counties are quite large, ranging from 26 to 1,000. The cases of total and 

 partial destitution in these 30 counties amount to over 40,000, while in other counties there 

 are probably, cases unreported sufficient to swell the aggregate to 50,000 .In the more thinly 

 populated counties of Nebraska and Dakota the number of such cases is, of course, smaller. 

 Adding the cases east of Missouri, I do not think it out of the way to estimate the number 

 of people affected by this pest at 75,000 to 100,000." 



