16 



21. To what extent have birds, domestic fowls, and other animals, domestic or wild, been 

 useful in destroying these insects ? ■ ' 



As the successful prosecution of this work is as deeply important to the western portions 

 of our Dominion (where immense damaj^e is often inflicted by this destructive foe) as to any 

 part of the United States, it is hojied that our Government will render all possible aid to the 

 work of this Commission, either by instructions to parties engaged in surveys and other Gov- 

 ernment work in the western regions, to make the necessary observations, or otherwise by ap- 

 pointing suitable co-operating agencies to aid in the work. 



No ofiisial report of the results of the labours of this important Commission has yet ap- 

 peared, but the following telegraphic summary of the work of the season has lately been 

 printed in the public newspapers : — 



U. S. ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Report of its Labours in the North-West. 



The Rocky Mountain Locust- — His Parasites and Winged Enemies. 



HOW THE grasshopper PLAGUE MAY BE STOPPED. 



St. Louis, Nov. 12.— The labours of the United States Entomological Commission, 

 appointed by Secretary Shurz last spring, to investigate the grasshopper plague, are drawing 

 toward a conclusion. The Commission consists of Prof C. V. Riley, State Entomologist of 

 Missouri ; Cyrus Thomas, State Entomologist of Illinois ; and Prof A. S. Packard, Jr., a 

 Professor in the Peabody Academy of Science, of Salem, Mass. 



The commissioners were appointed on the 20th of March, and a couple of weeks later the 

 three members were out on their exploring tour. Prof Riley took the States of Texas, 

 Kansas, Iowa, and Colorado, and the British possessions as lar north as the Saskatchewan Val- 

 ley, and his investigations were to be directed more particularly to the biology of the grass- 

 hojiper, generally called Rocky Mountain locust by entomologists, its entomological enemies 

 and parasites, and remedies and devices for the prevention of the grasshopper plague. Prof. 

 Packard's field was Montana, Utah, Idaho, the Western part of Wyoming, and the Pacific 

 Coast, and he made a study of the anatomy and embryology of the grasshopper. The terri- 

 tory assigned to Prof Thomas, embraced Minnesota, Nebraska, the eastern part of Wyoming, 

 and all the other states and territories west of the Mississippi not taken by Profs. Riley and 

 Packard ; and the special subjects assigned to him were the geographical range of the grass- 

 hopper, his enemies not entomological, and tiie agricultural bearings of the subject. The 

 original bill prevailed for a commission of five, and an appropriation of ."SiiSjOOO. Congress 

 cut the money down to .518,000, and reduced the number of commissioners to three Prof. 

 Riley says all the commissioners met with unexpected success in their investigations. They 

 met with the most cordial receptions amontr the people of the west and south-west every- 

 where, and were furni.shed by the farmers with a vast amount of valuable information which 

 they never could have obtained if the informants had not felt themselves personally interested 

 in the work of the commi.ssion. The U. S. signal bureau also aided the commissioners ma- 

 terially in furni.shing them with accurate meteorological data, very necessary in the study of 

 the migrations of the gra.sshoppers and their ova-deposits, as also the cfiect which climatic 

 changes have upon them. Prof. Riley spent six weeks in the country in which the principal 

 armies of grasshoppers are hatched, and which they leave as soon as the short, dry grass of 

 the country, on which they principally subsist, is gone. The country is very thinly settled, 

 but the professor was afforded every possible assistance in his investigations by the authori- 

 ties of the Canadian (iovernnient, including Governor Morris and the Ministers of Agricul- 

 ture and the Interior. Remaining in the Briti.«h pos.sossions about six weeks. Professor Riley 

 closed his investigations and returned to Chicago, where he again met his tellow commis- 

 sioners, Profs. Packard and Thomas, just returned from the districts visited by them Notes 

 were again compared, views interchnnged, and statistical and other matter exchanged, and the 

 commissioners separated once more, returnini; this time to their respective homes to write up 

 the results of their investigatinus. Prof. Riley has been at home now five or six weeks, and 

 has been engaged on the report ever since his return. He expects to complete the report by 



