50 



INJUKIES. 



In the article above cited, Prof. Forbes states : 



"Tiie first decided injuries reported this year were to oats, which 

 the grasshoppers commonly invaded when driven out of the meadows 

 hy the harvesting of the hay. This crop being already headed, the 

 insects attacked it by climbing the stems and eating off the pedicels 

 of the oats so that the grain dropped to the ground, many fields 

 being thus almost entirely destroyed, and others reduced in yield 

 from five, to ten or fifteen bushels per acre. In some cases the en- 

 tire head was eaten off, and dropped to the ground. Considerable 

 annoyance was occasioned in harvest fields by the grasshoppers eat- 

 ing the twine bands, so that the bundles fell apart. After the oats 

 were harvested the pests frequently took refuge in adjacent corn 

 fields, working at first around the borders of the fields, but later, 

 in some situations, scattered almost uniformly through the entire 

 area. Here a very serious damage was done, especially if the corn 

 was a little late, by their eating off the silk at the tip of the young 

 ear as fast as it fruited, and likewise eating out the stamens from 

 the tassels, the necessary consequence being to prevent the fertiliza- 

 tion of the grain and consequently to occasion the blasting of the 

 ear. Some farmers in the regions worst infested have reported to 

 me that their fields were entirely ruined, but commonly the prin- 

 cipal mischief was confined to the ten or twenty outer rows. In gardens, 

 potatoes, cabbages, raspberries, and strawberries have suffered 

 materially, and in nurseries, the foliage upon the young stock had 

 in many cases been completely eaten away." 



In general little need be added to this account, but the following 

 notes of a visit I made, under Prof. Forbes's direction, to a farm on 

 which the grasshoppers were very numerous and caused serious 

 injury, may be of interest as fairly representing the conditions on 

 many other farms where the locusts were destructive. On Novem- 

 ber 25 I visited the farm of Mr. B. C. Davis, of French Grove, 

 Peoria county, and found the destructive results of the grasshoppers' 

 presence very apparent even at that time. The farm, consisting of 

 160 acres, had been cropped the pcist season about as follows : 

 corn, 63 acres ; oats, 20 acres ; clover pasture, 40 acres ; clover and 

 timothy meadow, 30 acres ; the remaining portion being utilized for 

 gardens, yards, etc. Mr. Davis, who kindly did all in his power to 

 aid the investigation, stated that the injury to corn was very great, 

 as the locusts attacked it and began eating the silk before the pollen 

 had fertilized the kernels, so that the latter did not "fill." Sixteen 

 acres of the sixty-six yielded fifty bushels to the acre ; the rest only 

 twenty bushels per acre. There was no difference in the time of 

 planting or methods of cultivation, the increased yield of the for- 

 mer portion of the field being due to the fact that the locusts did 

 not reach it sufficiently early to cause serious injury. On many of 

 the cobs to be found upon the injured acres there was not a single 

 well developed kernel, and a large proportion of the ears consisted 

 of stunted cobs bearing only a few dozen partially developed kernels. 

 The injury to oats was equally serious, Mr. Davis stating that he 

 lost 400 bushels from twenty acres because of the grasshoppers, 

 which attacked half the field before it was cut; the yield on the 



