GRASSHOPPERS AND OTHER INJURIOUS INSECTS 01' 1911 AND 1912. 7 



received from districts in the southern half of Minnesota. The out- 

 look for 1912 in the summer of 1911 was serious and Mr. Somes, in 

 charge of this work in the field, predicted an alarming increase if 

 weather conditions favored. Fortunately for us, the spring and 

 early sumimer x)f 1912 were very unfavorable to grasshopper rav- 

 ages and but few reports of injury have reached us durmg last sum- 

 mer. It must be borne in mind, hovewer, that two or more dry sea- 

 sons in succession, or even one excessively dry summer, a condition 

 we are quite likely to meet in this state, will encourage the increase 

 of grasshoppers to such an extent that much loss will be again occa- 

 sioned if farmers are not ready to take concerted and timely 

 action. It is to be hoped that our citizens will not, therefore, be 

 apathetic, doubting and critical of this work until, when the de- 

 struction of crops is at its height in midsummer, they feel com- 

 pelled to call upon the entomologist for help, too late for effective 

 action. This has been too often the case in the past, and July and 

 August have witnessed hundreds of letters in the mail of this office, 

 asking for relief at a time when relief is not possible. 



It is not to be understood that the entire grain output of the 

 State has been materially lessened by the ravages of these pests, 

 but individual farmers living in the regions above mentioned have 

 lost from 20 to 90 per cent of their crops and in some cases all of 

 their grain has been destroyed. 



The greatest destruction has, in every case, been in proximity 

 to large tracts of land which have been, perhaps, in tillage some 

 years ago, and have been allowed to revert to natural conditions. 

 Such tracts are really the direct cause of all the trouble which we 

 have experienced. It is true wchave in Minnesota a grasshopper 

 law which, supposedly, effects the plowing of such dangerous land 

 when infested with grasshopper eggs, but, as a matter of fact, the 

 law is ineffective through faulty wording, and it is utterly impos- 

 sible for counties to plow this land. For instance, in one township 

 alone in a western county we know of at least 8,000 acres of land 

 which calls for the plow and does not get it. Through the ineffect- 

 iveness of this law the owners cannot be forced to plow, and at the 

 rate of $2.50 an acre it would cost this county over $16,000 to take 

 care of reverted land in this single township alone. 

 Quoting from Mr. Somes' report for 1911 : 



"We may say that the gi-asshopper question has been g-rowing more 

 serious each year for several seasons and that during the past summer (1911) 

 the damage was greater and far more widespread than at any time iireviously 

 since the visitations of the Rocky Mountain Locust. The reports of damage 

 from hojDpers came to us from almost all parts of the state and although the 



