234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



reported no visits from the lociist this year. These were Adams, Jaspei', 

 Lalie, Newton, Laporte. Randolph and Tipton. Why they should give 

 Tipton the go-by is a question. The counties all around it have had the 

 locust, and in most of them they have been numerous. They have had 

 no locusts in Tipton County this year. That has been attributed to the 

 fact that Tipton County contains very little timber and is very level; 

 l^erhaps that is the reason. If there is any one here from Tipton County 

 and knows different, I wish he Avould speak. [I was suggesting to our 

 neighbor here that Tipton County was under water seventeen years ago.— 

 Hobbs.] In some of the counties, especially in the north, they are reported 

 as being few in number. In most of the counties they were numerous. 

 This decrease in numbers, I believe, is due to the constant cutting off of 

 the timber, which has been going on for the last seventeen years. I 

 have heard many of the old settlers say that while they had the locust in 

 their county they were not as numerous as they were seventeen years 

 ago, and they Avere not as numerous then as when they made their ap- 

 pearance before that, so in time we will have but very few of tliem. The 

 date of appearance is from May 12th to .Tune 1st, a period of about twenty 

 days. It takes about twenty-one days to go from the south to the north 

 of the State, and they range aliout the same in their disappearance. The 

 adults remained thirty to forty days until the last one disappeared. 



Twenty counties reported more or less damage to fruit trees. I laid 

 special stress on this, because I wanted to see just how much there was 

 in the warnings that were circulated by the newspapers. I didn't believe 

 that the locust would do very much injury, and I so stated, and I wanted 

 to see Avhether they did so very much injury or not. Sixty-two counties 

 heard from reported no damage at all to fruit trees. Some of them re- 

 ported damage to fruit trees, but I believe, if the matter liad lieen in- 

 vestigated carefully, that a great deal of the damage reported due to lo- 

 custs was no more or less than twig blight, of which we had a great deal 

 over the State this year; this resembles the work of the locust. The 

 kinds of fruit trees which were injured were the apple, peach and the 

 plum, and in that order, as reported on these circulars. 



The question relating to the newly set orchards— did they injure newly 

 set orchards more than older orchards? Sixty-seven of these counties 

 reported no injury whatever to young orchards, and five of them did 

 not report at all. So you see they did very little injury to trees that were 

 set last spring. From the press scare, farmers were very much afraid, 

 and failed to plant trees last spring on that account. Now, this summer, 

 I am asked the question very frequently. Is it safe to plant ti'ees this 

 fall? I have been pretty well over the State and noticed nurseries this 

 summer, and I find, with but very few exceptions, nursery trees were 

 not injured at all, to speak of. I noticed Avhere a young orchard was 

 situated near timber the trees have been injured somewhat. So that the 

 warnings that were sent out last year Avere practically groundless, as I 



