GRASSHOPPERS. 



During the season just closing very many complaints of grass- 

 hopper ravages have reached us. They have been injurious in Otter 

 Tail County (always a grasshopper county when the insects are in 

 special evidence) about Fergus Falls, Perham and other towns ; near 

 Hendrum. near Lindstrom, about Wadena, at Clear Lake, Litchfield, 

 St. Cloud, Oak Grove, Swan Lake, Zimmerman and North Branch, 

 representing, in addition to Otter Tail, the counties of Norman, Chi- 

 sago, Sherburne, Wadena, Anoka, Meeker and Stearns. These, so far 

 as seen, were native forms, but some varieties of native forms may be 

 exceedingly destructive when present in large numbers, as they have 

 been this year. The Rocky Mountain Locust or grasshopper was not 

 reported. The species sent to us for examination and identification 

 were the Red-legged Locust, the Two-striped Locust, the Pellucid 

 Locust and the Lesser Migratory Locust, the latter being a close cousin 

 to the Rocky Mountain form, and doing considerable injury a few 

 years ago both in Otter Tail County and in the northwestern part 

 of the state. The clover crops of A. Byson, J- W. Aliller, John 

 Plantenberg, Anton Lubesmeier, near St. Cloud, and the same crop 

 on the ground of William Weyrauch, Stephen Hinkemeier and 

 Joseph Hinkemeier, of Clearwater ; Alphonse Fisher, John Mauer, 

 Peter Puetz, Jos. Braun, of Sauk Rapids, and Fred Meyer, of South 

 Haven, were partially or entirely lost. In other localities it was either 

 clover, alfalfa or pasture land which suffered. 



On August 18th, 1908, Mr. Ruggles was sent to St. Cloud in 

 response to complaints received from that place, and visited W. S. 

 and Roy McConnell. It had been reported that grasshoppers were 

 eating and destroying fields of clover which were being saved for 

 seed. In company with Mr. W. S. McConnell he drove around the 

 country for three hours, and man}- farms southwest of St. Cloud 

 were visited. The hoppers were extremely abundant, and in many 

 cases the heads of clover had been eaten off entirely, so that ab- 

 solutely no seed was left. From what they said it would appear 

 that several hundred acres were destroyed in this manner. About 

 two weeks previous to this date Mr. McConnell had used the 

 Criddle Mixture, and on this date one could find manv dead bodies 



