9 
There are 2,000 acres more that they are working on now and haye damaged 50 
per cent. They are eating the leaves and the forms or blooms, as well as the tender 
bark from off the stalks and limbs, causing the limbs and stalks to shrivel up and 
die, and if they continue their work ten days longer they will have completely 
destroyed the cotton on these 2,000 acres. 
On the remaining acreage in cotton, there being a total of something over 5,000 
acres, they have not as yet done any great damage, but it all lies contiguous and there 
are grasshoppers on every acre of it, though not in sufficient quantities thus far to do 
much harm. 
Corn crop.—There are 150 acres totally destroyed, by which I mean to say that 
the grasshoppers have eaten the tassel and the silk from around the ear completely, 
which means that under these circumstances the corn can not mature. They follow 
the silk down into the ear and eat out the tender cob; they have also eaten holes 
through the shucks, and clear through the ears of corn, and in addition are strip- 
ping the corn of the blade. In riding through a patch of 100 acres I found the 
grasshoppers on the statks all the way from the ground to the top, as well as on the 
blades, and numbers of them on the tassels. I counted as many as 30 on the tassels 
and 15 on some of the blades, averaging probably 25 to 50 grasshoppers to each 
stalk. 
In addition to the corn that they have compietely destroyed there are about 300 
acres that they have partially destroyed, and there are some grasshoppers in smaller 
quantities in all of the balance, which balance has been damaged but little thus far, 
though if they continue their ravages to the same extent that they have been work- 
ing for the past two weeks they will ruin it all. 
Oats.—Our oat crops before we cut them were damaged fully 50 per cent. The 
grasshoppers ate the blade and then cut off the head, leaving the ground perfectly 
white in places. 
Millet.—The millet is literally alive with grasshoppers, but as it is very thick the 
damage does not seem to be so great, though if they continue their work they will 
doubtless ruin it. 
Sorghum.—While the sorghum patches are filled with grasshoppers I can not see 
that they have done any great amount of damage; only here and there we found 
where the blades had been cut. 
In the foregoing I have tried to give you a thoroughly correct idea from my own 
personal observation of the damage done on this property. As far as I have been 
able to ascertain the grasshoppers have not done much damage south of the town 
of Benoit, which is in Bolivar County, though in the northern part of the county I 
am advised that they have eaten up whole crops as they are now doing on Dahomy. 
Mr. Charles Scott, of Rosedale, informs me that they are devouring his crops as well 
as other crops in his neighborhood. They are also to be found along the ditch banks 
on the plantations throughout Washington County, though they have thus far done 
but little injury to the crops there. 
I have written to the agricultural colleges in this State and Louisiana endeavoring 
to get them to send some one to look over the situation and devise some means for 
preventing further damage, if possible, as well as to put a stop to their ravages in 
future, but unfortunately the entomologists of both colleges are absent, one of them 
being in San Francisco and another at Cornell University. 
I now write to ask that you send some one to investigate the matter with a view of 
applying a remedy.immediately, or instructing me what to do in order to save a part 
of our crops this year. 
Both colleges have sent me their formule for preparing a mixture of poison, con- 
sisting of paris green with bran and molasses or sweetened water, and distributing 
it through the fields. We have carried out the directions and find that the grass- 
