475 
Grasshoppers, probably some species, of the Caloptenus, have visited 
several counties in the Southwest. In Bandera, Bastrop, Bell, Cooke, 
Gillespie, Lavaca, Mason, Williamson, Kendall, Burleson, DeWitt, Rob- 
ertson, Washington, Caldwell, Bexar, Waller, Victoria, and Grayson, 
Texas, they were very destructive upon gardens, meadows, and pastures. 
What little wheat was sown they destroyed, causing the sowing to be 
delayed till after their departure. In Williamson their damage to the 
cotton crop is estimated at 15 per cent. of an average yield. In 
Washington the grass on the cattle-ranges is destroyed to an extent 
that causes apprehensions that the cattle will starve. They appear 
to have a special relish for the foliage of peach and other fruit trees. 
They have deposited millions of eggs. These counties are scattered 
from the northern border to the Gulf of Mexico, but are all west of 
the nineteenth meridian of Washington. Two counties in Arkansas, 
Washington and Benton, report a similar destruction. Missouri also 
had a more or less severe visitation in Taney, Vernon, Nodaway, and 
Lawrence. Kansas was again raided by these pests, and many early- 
sown wheat and other cereal crops were destroyed, but their ravages 
were such as a spring-sowing will measurably repair. They have laid 
immense quantities of eggs, but our correspondent in Butler, after a 
careful examination, is satisfied that nine-tenths of the deposit are 
rotten. Our correspondent in Franklin, after a half-hour’s search, 
found but a single healthy egg. The insects were also present in numer- 
ous Swarms in Cherokee, Cowley, Neosho, Crawford, Shawnee, Doug- 
las, Labette, Jackson, Jefferson, and Woodson. In Labette barley, 
peanuts, and hemp were not molested by them. In Richardson, Boone, 
and Cass, Nebraska, they were also destructive on newly-sown cereals, 
gardens, fruit-trees, &c., as also in Fremont, Rio Grande, and Douglas, 
Colorado. 
The Hamilton (lowa) Freeman states that a gentleman, on examining 
the ground on which the insects had deposited their eggs, found 52 
deposits in 4 square inches, or 13 per inch. The eggs in each deposit 
varied betweeen 17 and 34, averaging about 25 to the cocoon. If these 
all hatched, there would be 325 grasshoppers on each square inch. But 
most of the eggs were addled by the warm weather subsequent to 
their deposit. It is proposed to destroy them by burning over the 
prairies. In Woodbury, Iowa, the insects greatly injured the potato 
crop. 
Owsley, Kentucky, reports a great destruction of early-sown wheat 
by a grasshopper, which is most probably the Caloptenus femur-rubrum. 
IRON AND STEEL MANUFACTURES.—The growth of the iron interest 
18 in many ways subservient to advance in agriculture. In 1810 the 
product of pig-iron was but 54,000 tons; it more than doubled in ten 
years, and nearly doubled at each subsequent decennial period up to 
1870, when it amounted to 1,865,000 tons, and reached 2,854,558 tons in 
1872, since which time it has fallen to 2,266,581 tons in 1875. The de- 
cline was 422,832 tons from 1874. Less than one-fifth is charcoal iron, 
and of the remainder the bituminous slightly exceeds the anthracite. 
The importation of pig-iron has nearly ceased; it was but 66,457 tons 
last year, and the exports were 8,738 tons ; and withan increased domestic 
product in ten years, from 931,582 tons in 1865 to 2,266,581 in 1875, the 
price has declined from 584 cents per pound to 252, which is less than 
the price in 1845. 
The States reporting more or less increase over 1874 are Maine, Vir- 
ginia, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The States producing 
the larger proportions were Pennsylvania, 42.4 per cent.; Ohio, 18.3; 
