THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 157 



enemy.' The next monthly report (that for October) records 

 the prevalence of the plague in two more counties in Minne- 

 sota, two more in Iowa, four more in Missouri, four more in 

 Kansas, four more in Nebraska, three in Texas, two in 

 Colorado, and one in California. The following letter from 

 Kansas is recorded 'to give some idea of its ravages:' — 

 ' The farmers in my county had iheir land for wheat prepared 

 in good time, and in a better condition than I ever saw. On 

 the 6th of September the grasshoppers made their appearance 

 all over the county. Farmers became alarmed, and did not 

 sow any wheat. About the 18lh to the 20th they appeared to 

 go away. Farmers commenced sowing, and got in about 

 two-thirds of their crop. On the 28th and 29th they came 

 the second time, filling the air, reminding one of a snow- 

 storm in December. Some who had sown early had wheat 

 np nice, but you cannot find a spear in any place. Wheat 

 which was sown before the grasshoppers came the first time 

 has been eaten down, until the grain has finally ceased to 

 grow. I am candidly of the opinion that every acre which is 

 sown to-day in this county will have to be sown again. There 

 is no other chance for it; and the great trouble will be that 

 so many of our farmers have sown all their seed, and are not 

 able to buy again. And what will they do ? Some who 

 have not been two years on their claims are leaving them, 

 and going over into Missouri and Arkansas to winter, to find 

 something to live upon.' We might go on to an almost 

 unlimited extent with similar descriptions of the wide-spread 

 devastation caused by these insects, and the consternation 

 they have produced throughout the west. Every agricultural 

 newspaper and a large number of city papers have published 

 throughout the past season similar records of ruin and suffer- 

 ing. To assist their brethren in the aflflicted regions, large 

 sums of money have been contributed both by State Govern- 

 ments and by individuals ; but it is greatly to be feared that 

 the utmost liberality will hardly save from ruin, though it 

 may relieve temporarily, many farmers who had recently settled 

 on those hitherlo attractive plains. Not only, it should be 

 remembered, have they suffered from a dire plague of locusts, 

 but they have also been the victims of a long-continued 

 drought, accompanied in some locahties by a terrible hot 

 wind, resembling the sirocco that blasts Southern Europe 



