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ward. At Kansas City I was equally unsuccessful, the only information received there 

 being the statement ot railroad men as to the occurrence of hoppers on the railroad in 

 Colorado (the case investigated by Professors Snow and Popenoe), and of some in Arizona, 

 along the line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. 



At Topeka I went first to the office of the State Board of Agriculture. The Secretary, 

 Mr. Mohler, was absent, but the gentlemen present, Messrs. Longshore and Niswander, 

 kindly gave me a full statement as to the information the office contained. 



They receive reports from over 600 correspondents who are scattered over the entire 

 State, the western portion being well represented. They assured me that not a single 

 report had been received by them which mentioned injury from grasshoppers, and they 

 were posicive that no damage was being done. 



At the newspaper offices I received similar replies, except that in the office of the 

 Kansas Democrat I learned of a report that some damage had been done in Kearney 

 County. As this report, however, was somewhat indefinite, I hesitated to make it the 

 basis of a special trip to the extreme southwest part of the State, and Lawrence being so 

 near at hand, I concluded to go there to see if Professoi" Snow had any recent information. 



Professor Snow was absent, but his assistant, Mr. V. L. Kellogg, kindly gave me 

 all the information he could. He said that they had heard nothing from the region that 

 had been examined by Professors Snow and Popenoe in Colorado except that the winged 

 insects were moving south, and he was sure that none of these had entered Kansas. 



He also informed me that they had received information of injuries at Garden City, 

 and showed me specimens of Caloptemis diff'erentialis and hivittatus received from there. 



This information tending to substantiate the report of damage in Kearney County, I 

 decided to visit Garden City, and took the first train for that place. On the way I kept, 

 careful outlook for any signs of damage, and improved the opportunity of occasional stops 

 to collect specimens and inquire of residents as to the prevalence of grasshoppers. All 

 answers agreed in denial of any unusual numbers of grasshoppers or of injury from them, 

 and it was not till I reached Garden City that I learned of any damage. Here I was 

 told that the alfalfa fields were being ruined, and it was only a short time after my arrival 

 that I was in a held a mile from town where the conditions showed at once the state of 

 affairs to be serious. 



The alfalfa was badly stripped, the blossoms and seed entirely eaten up, and in many 

 patches the stems were stripped bare of leaves, looking brown and dead. 



The grasshoppers, mostly diferentialis, with a considerable number of bivittatus, when 

 rising in front of me as I walked through the field, formed a cloud eight or ten feet high 

 and so dense as to hide objects beyond them. Here I noticed a number of grasshoppers 

 dead from the attacks of parasitic Tachina. 



From this field I went to another, owned by the same man, which was also well 

 filled with grasshoppers, but the injury here was less, especially around the buildings, 

 where a large number of turkeys were doing excellent service in killing the hoppers and 

 at the same time adding rapidly to their own weight. 



In a field of sorghum directly adjoining there was also considerable injury, but 

 differentialis seemed scarce, while a bright green species, Acridiuia frontalis, Thos., was 

 abundant and apparently the principal agent of destruction. This species was also noticed 

 here and in other places occurring in great abundance on the wild sunflower so common 

 on these plains, and the question arose whether this was not its natural food plant and 

 its attacks on sorghum incidental. 



The day following I spent the forenoon with Dr. Sabin, who kindly furnished a 

 horse and cart and accompanied me in examining a number of farms within five miles of 

 Garden City, where alfalfa fields and orchards were injured. 1 met and talked with a 

 number of farmers who had suffered from grasshopper depredations, and the information 

 received from them with what I gained by personal observation satisfied me that losses 

 could be avoided by proper measures. 



