48 



Missouri, writes ; " Since the destruction by the grasshoppers, crops of all kinds have 

 grown beyond precedent as to quantity and quality. Food for stock is abundant, and 

 pastures abound with rye instead of blue-grass." A third, from Kansas, the State that has 

 suffered most of all from the locusts, states that " the failure of wheat, oats, timothy, 

 clover, flax, &c., by ravages of the grasshopper, caused the planting of an extraordinary 

 breadth of corn, potatoes, beans, buckwheat and vines of all kinds. Then the finest sea- 

 son for the growth of these crops has brought our farmers bountiful harvests of them." 

 Others from different parts of the same State write : " Last year we had almost nothing ; 

 this year we have great abundance." " All our crops were destroyed last year, while this 

 year they are all good." "Last season we had nothing worth noting; this season our 

 crops are large beyond any precedent." From Nebraska, it is reported that " neither 

 corn nor potatoes were raised last year ; the whole crops were destroyed by grasshoppers ; 

 this season we have the best crops ever raised." 



From the foregoing Reports it is evident that the locust visitation of this year, though 

 very alarming in the earlier portion of the season, has proved to be of only moderate im- 

 portance. No doubt there have been here and there, in the infested region, individual 

 cases of extreme suffering, but the general population have escaped without any serious 

 hardship. Where the invading horde of locusts makes but one attack, there is no doubt 

 that it can be repelled and got rid of by vigorous efforts, especially if the population is suf- 

 ficiently dense to admit of concerted action over a considerable area; but, on the whole, it is 

 apparent that natural causes alone have operated in the reduction of the great army, and 

 that no human measures have had any appreciable effect in averting a repetition of the 

 frightful sufferings of the ever memorable "Locust Year," 1874. 



Means of Keducing the Ravages of the Locusts. 



In our Report of last year we gave an account of various methods that may be em 

 ployed in the reduction of the ravages of the locusts ; since its publication much has been 

 said and written in different quarters upon the same subject, as, from the vast amount of 

 devastation caused by the insect, it had become a matter of supreme importance to the 

 people of the whole continent, whether personally affected or not. Naturally, therefore, 

 the subject came up for discussion at the meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, held at Detroit in August last. Papers were there read by Dr. 

 LeConte, of Philadelphia, retiring President of the Association, the most eminent of 

 American Entomologists, and Professor Riley, the State Entomologist of Missouri, who 

 has made the locusts a subject of personal study since their appearance in his State. As 

 Dr. LeConte's paper has already been quoted by Mr. Saunders in the earlier portion of 

 this Report, we need only desire the reader to refer to it there. 



From Professor Riley's paper, which was of considerable length, we make the follow- 

 ing quotations, which the reader will observe set forth for the most part similar modes of 

 prevention to those briefly suggested by us in our last Report (pages 40 and 41) : — 



" The means to be employed against the ravages of the locust in the more fertde 

 country subject to its periodical visitations, but in which it is not indigenous, may be 

 classed under five heads : — 1. Natural agencies. 2. Artificial means of destroying the 

 t jjgs. 3. Means of destroying the unfledged young. 4. Remedies against the mature or 

 winged insects. 5. Prevention. 



" 1. Natural Agenc'u's. — These are, 1st., climatic conditions which induce disease and 

 prevent the insect's continued multiplication in mucli of the country it invades. 2nd. 

 Natural enemies, consisting of birds, reptiles and mammals which devour, or in other ways 

 destroy it, and of predaceous and parasitic species of its own class. The agencies in the 

 first and last categories are beyond man's control, and will do their appointed work unin- 

 fluenced by his action ; but the others are more within his control. Almost all birds in- 

 habiting the western plains feed upon tiie locust and its eggs, and the prairie chicken and 

 quail are untiring in this good work. The States subject to locust ravages should pass 

 more stringent laws for the better pnitecticm of these game birds, with which the markt-ts of 

 tl e East are annually glutted. Many of the harmless reptiles— toads, snakes and lizards 

 — .should be spared from the ruthless war which most persons, ignorant of their habits, 

 wage against them. 



