292 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



Scudder) wliicli was about one-twentieth as abundant as the former 

 species. These two species were the ones that were the most destructive 

 to the larger fruit and ornamental trees, and they are the only ones 

 that I saw feeding upon the ripe kernels of rye in the fields. 



During tbe hottest part of the day they would sometimes take to their 

 wings and fly to a distance of from 50 to 100 yards at a time. All of 

 them would not start up at once, but one would start up here, another 

 there, and so on, each apparently going entirely independent of the 

 others. When the weather was perfectly calm they would fly in every 

 direction, but whenever there was a gentle breeze blowing they would 

 fly against it ; they would not attempt to fly when the wind was blow- 

 ing hard. 



Sometimes when there was a perfect calm one would start up and fly 

 a short distance, when, the breeze starting up, he would turn and fly 

 against it ; but when it would begin to blow quite hard he would again 

 turn about and fly v/ith the wind for a short distance and then alight. 



In these migrations, if one of the locusts were to fly against a tall 

 tree he would alight there and remain for some time, but if he missed 

 the tree he would continue his flight sometimes until lost to view; at 

 other times he would gradually approach the earth and liiially alight, 

 either upon the bare earth or upon any i)lant, shrub, tree, or other ob- 

 ject that chanced to be in his way. 



These locusts do not seem to be able to fly in any direction that 1(hey 

 may choose, nor to alight in any particular place, alighting as often in 

 the water or upon the bare ground as upon plants. In migrating from 

 the fields to a collection of trees of any kind a very few of them will 

 alight in the trees, but the greater number will drop upon the ground 

 and afterward crawl to a tree and ascend its trunk. 



The Ash-colored Locust [M. cinereits) flies with greater ease than the 

 Devastating Locust {M. devastator). Both species iiy in a nearly straight 

 line, and at a distance ranging all the way from 5 to 20 feet from the 

 ground. 



These migrations were not always performed for the purpose of ob- 

 taining food, as I have frequently seen the locusts start out of poplar 

 trees that as yet had not been much injured by them, of the leaves o: 

 which they are very fond. I have also seen them fly out of wheat-fields 

 that had not as yet been harvested, and out of low, waste places that 

 were covered with a rank growth of green weeds. 



"WHEIIE DID THESE LOCUSTS HATCH 1 



As the wind in the San Joaquin valley during tlie summer season 

 usually blows from the southwest, so the course of the locusts would, 

 in most cases, be directed to the southwest, since they invariably fly 

 against the wind. 



Several persons who had visited the foot-hills lying on the east side 

 of this valley early in the season stated to me that the locusts were 

 much more abundant there than they have been in the valley, and that 

 they appeared there much earlier in the season than they did in the 

 valley. These persons were nearly always of the opinion that the 

 locusts which devastated the valley hatched out in the foot-hills, and 

 that as soon as the feed on the foot-hills began to fail, the locusts mi- 

 grated to the valley; but I arrived too late in the season to definitely 

 settle this question,*^ as the locusts were already very numerous in the 

 valley when I arrived there early in June. I am strongly of the opin- 

 ion, however, that the greater number of the locusts which appeared 



