156 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Years of patient waiting, hard work, and self-sacrifice, have 

 been destroyed in a few days, with no known remedy for 

 protection ; just as the fruits of labour were beginning to be 

 realized, destruction came ; and the question with many is : 

 "Is it of any use to try again?" Here is a field for the 

 Department of Agriculture. Some method of protection or 

 relief must be had against the destruction of this insect, or an 

 immense tract of magnificent country will never be what it 

 would without this curse. I am one of those who believe all 

 such things may be controlled by some practical method; it 

 only requires study, enterprise, and means to learn how. 

 This county (Doniphan) could well aff'ord to pay 100,000 

 dollars for a guarantee that no grasshoppers should ever 

 trouble it again. I have learned tliat vegetation highly 

 cultivated and growing vigorously is less liable to be destroyed 

 than when on the decline or growing feebly. Thus it is we 

 often see a single tree in an orchard eaten even to the bark, 

 while others of the same variety are not damaged so much ; 

 and upon examination it will be invariably found that those 

 mostly eaten were diseased, or had their vitality in some way 

 impaired. This thing was noticeable when the same kind of 

 insects were here six or seven years ago. Of all fruit trees, 

 apple and pear trees suffer the most, while peaches, plums 

 and cherries suffer the least. They eat the leaves off the 

 apples, and leave most of the apples on, but of the peaches 

 they will eat the fruit and leave the foliage ; but in many 

 instances, when vegetation is not plenty, 1 understand they 

 clean all as they go ; and I have seen instances of this kind. 

 The damage to vineyards in this county is not so great. 

 They do not seem to relish grapes, and are satisfied by eating 

 off the stems and letting the bunches fall to the ground. 

 There will not be enough corn in this county to feed what 

 stock there is in the county as it should be fed.' The same 

 report states that 'the plague' — as it justly terms it — is 

 reported in two counties in Wisconsin, seven in Minnesota, 

 five in Iowa, four in Missouri, thirty in Kansas, and seven in 

 Nebraska. It adds that 'the wide-spread destruction which 

 they (the locusts) have caused in the north-west has not been 

 adequately described. In many places large masses of people 

 will probably suffer during the coming winter for the neces- 

 saries of life, their crops having been swept by this remorseless 



