THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 155 



been desolated by locusts. In May I visited Martin county, 

 and saw the beginning of tlieir ravages. I laid the facts 

 before the governor. The plague has increased. Many 

 homes are desolated. They have the right to look to us for 

 relief. They are our own flesh and blood. They are our 

 brothers. They are God's children. The scourge is an 

 awful one. It may be for our sins. It may be to try our 

 faith in God. It may be to lest our humanity. I ask your 

 prayers and your alms. I recommend that an offering shall 

 be taken up on the last Sunday in July, and that a further 

 special contribution of money and provisions shall also be 

 taken at our annual harvest-home festival. Please send your 

 offerings to Hon. Isaac Atwater, Minneapolis, who will send 

 them to the committee in St. Paul. Praying God to bless 

 yon, your friend and bishop, — H. B. Whipple.' Extract 

 from a widow's letter in Brown county : — ' I mortgaged my 

 farm to get seed last spring. All is lost. What to do I do 

 not know. It would take a tear out of a stone to hear the 

 people talk. I had a nice piece of barley almost ready to 

 cut. There is nothing left but the straw, the heads lying 

 thick on the ground. Dear bishop, I am almost heart-broken, 

 and nearly crazy, to think of the long, cold winter, and 

 nothing to depend on. May God help us. May the Lord 

 look to every orphan and widow, and put it in the hearts of 

 his children to help. The widow must not plead in vain.' 

 The bishop also issued a form of prayer for relief from the 

 plague of locusts, to be used in the churches throughout his 

 diocese. From the September Report of the Department of 

 Agriculture, at Washington, we cull the following note from 

 Kansas: — ' The late summer and fall crops have been almost 

 entirely destroyed by grasshoppers. The common jumping 

 grasshopper did much damage through the early part of the 

 season, but about the middle of August clouds of the flying 

 ones made their appearance over the county, devouring and 

 destroying vast quantities of vegetation. Gardens were 

 quickly eaten up, corn-fields were stripped of leaves, and in 

 many cases the corn was entirely eaten off; fruit trees are 

 left with naked branches, and in many cases the half-ripened 

 fruit is left hanging on the trees, presenting a sickening sight 

 of death and destruction. In addition to the actual loss by 

 devastation, the loss caused by discouragement will be greater. 



