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by the underlying boulder drift, the capacity of the soil to retain moisture 
is quite high. For this reason all the soils are very productive aud are 
in consequence in a high state of cultivation. About Lafayette, with in- 
significant exceptions, practically all the land is under cultivation. On the 
upland the principal crops are corn, oats, cloyer and wheat, while the 
bottom lands form one unbroken stretch of corn. The only waste places— 
oases for the naturalist—are on the upland an occasional grove or more 
rarely a Sswalmpy depression, on the bottoms frequent, though small, bogs 
marking the places where the underground waters ooze out from the mar- 
ginal bluffs. In such places the rarer and more interesting Orthoptera 
are to be found. 
ORTHOPTERAN HABITATS. 
No attempt at an exhaustive study of the various Orthopteran habi- 
tats was made owing to the limited time that could be spared for that pur- 
pose. Consequently in the following pages only the grosser features of the 
habitats are mentioned. About Lafayette, owing to the intense cultiva- 
tion of the region, nearly all the country is open, in consequence of which 
the dominant Orthoptera are campestral types. Where the ground is un- 
tilled it is usually covered with a close growth of blue grass (Poa 
pratensis), which in damper spots is replaced by foxtail (Chatochloa 
viridis and glauca). In such situations the grasshoppers usually encoun- 
tered include the following species: 
Syrbuia admirabilis, Arphia xranthoptera, Chortophaga viridifasciata, 
Encoptolophus sordidus, Dissosteira carolina, Melanoplus atlantis, Melan- 
oplus femur-rubrum, Orchelimum vulgare, Conocephalus  strictus and 
Nemobius fasciatus. 
In cultivated lands this assemblage is largely characteristic of the 
grassy borders of roads, paths and fence-rows. Most of the species named 
continue abundant in such places with the possible exception of Arphia 
xonthroptera and Chortophaga viridifasciata, both of which appeared to 
be rather scarce in the particular cultivated tracts examined by me. 
A second group of Orthoptera is characteristic of dry upland woods. 
On the level uplands woodland is represented only by widely scattered 
groves, in most of which the trees have been thinned out. This allows 
a rich growth of blue grass which is largely utilized as pasturage for 
cattle. Such pastured woodlands are almost invariably very barren in 
Orthoptera, those that do occur being similar to those found in the open 
