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wings, and about the size of a common paper-making wasp, is parasitic on the larger species 
of lepidopterous larvee that infest the grape vines. There are also various minute species 
of Hymenoptera, belonging to the genus Microgaster, that deposit their eggs in the bodies 
of the Sphina larve, in great numbers, which eventually destroys them. 
In conclusion, I will mention that there is a species of fungus that is found on the grape 
leaves, which is as bad in its effects as the ‘‘ leaf hoppers” are, or perhaps any other insect. 
This, sometimes, may be noticed about midsummer, and continues late in the season, causing 
the leaves to shrivel up, become crisp and brown and to fall prematurely, exposing the fruit 
and preventing its ripening. It usually occurs on the lower side of the leaves, and many 
persons have taken it for the effects of the ‘‘ hopper,” or ‘‘thrips,” as they call it, but not 
so; I have seen abundance of it where no insect of any kind was present, and have plainly 
detected it by the aid of a common magnifier. I have also arrested its progress by the 
immediate removal of such infected leaves, or parts of leaves, as soon as I discovered them. 
This fungus is called ‘‘ mildew,” and it, or an allied species, communicates itself also to the 
fruit, injuring its quality very much. A pair of pruning shears, artistically handled, is the 
best thing I know of for the cure of this fungus; but by all means burn the leaves as soon 
as removed. 
LOCUSTS OR GRASSHOPPERS IN KANSAS. 
S. J. H. Snyder, of Monrovia, Kansas, writes as follows in reference to the 
grasshopper visitation in that State : 
The ‘‘ Egyptian locusts’ or grasshoppers, so called, are assuming a position here as a 
‘*yegular institution ;”’ our farmers are hopeful, however, that they may finally ‘‘ fizzle out.” 
The ground on which our faith is based is the fact that they were unknown here prior to the 
ear 1866. I have myself been here all the time since 1554, and neither saw uor heard of 
them until they made their appearance in that year (1866 ;) the Indians also assert the same 
fact. In 1866 they came from the west, being brought here by a westerly wind, which 
strangely continued to blow from that same quarter for about three weeks, their regularadvance © 
being reported to us from Denver, Colorado, by freighters and travellers until they crossed the 
Big Blue, when in a few days the country was covered withthem. The fact is clear that they 
came from the land of their nativity in the mountains. This season they came from the north 
or northeast, after a regular wind from that direction of some four days’ duration. Their first 
appearance was in broken sections scattered over the country, but in about a week after, on 
the lith instant, the head of the main column advanced with a regularity almost majestic, 
and pouring down myriads upon myriads of these destroying pests upon the defenceless 
farmers, who were thus suddenly plunged from the highest joy of an unbounded harvest, into 
the very depths of painful uncertainty and foreboding ruin! This monstrous column was 
bounded on the west by a well-defined margin some 14 miles west of St. Joseph, 22 miles 
west of Atchison, 7 miles west of Monrovia, 3 miles west of Grasshoppers’ Falls, 4 miles east 
of ‘Topeka, and so on in a southwest direction toward the Mississippi, at the mouth of the 
Osage ; its eastern boundary I have not yet learned. Their flight is a very remarkable pheno- 
menon. From about 10 to 4 o’clock each day, while they move, the very heavens are covered 
as with a pall, sometimes obscuring the sun, the whirling hum of those below resembling an 
immense number of bee swarms, and their sound that of dim distant thunder. Higher up, 
where they strike the current, the nviseless, ceaseless tide flows on with a regularity and pre- 
cision truly astonishing; and when beheld toward the sun the seeming immensity of space in 
which they move, the instinct that governs their flight, and their countless numbers, 
fill the mind with a strange admiration and a sense of overwhelming amazement! An 
attempt to estimate their numbers would be utter folly, and if numbered no finite mind could 
comprehend a fraction of these countless hosts! Their destruction of vegetation is equally 
amazing ; the tobacco and Jamestown weed (stramonium) are devoured as readily as the 
cabbage and delicious peach! They are depositing their eggs everywhere, in the mellow, - 
field and in the beaten roadside, and these number still a thousandfold more than the incal- 
culable number of individuals that swarm in myriads all around. J hear that a column has 
also descended upon the Big Blue and its tributaries, but this needs confirmation. 
HUMBOLDT COUNTY, NEVADA. 
Our Humboldt, Nevada, correspondent forwards to this Department a copy 
of the report of the county surveyor and county assessor of Humboldt county, 
