224 



although eaten, were less to tlieir liking; mulberry trees growing in the 

 midst of other trees that had been defoliated entirely escaped their 

 ravages. Peach and walnut trees had been completely defoliated. 

 Locust trees {Pseudacacia robinia) were great favorites, and wherever 

 one of these trees grew in the infested district it bore, almost without 

 exception, evidences of having been visited by the grasshoppers, which 

 not only devoured the leaves, but also the bark on the smaller twigs. 

 The leaves of hickory and oak trees growing along or in the cultivated 

 fields were also eaten, but the insects did not occur in the more central 

 portion of the woodlands, showing an evident preference for the opeu 

 fields. 



The leaves of the cultivated sunflower had been considerably eaten j 

 also the strap-leaves of the flowers, but the seeds had not been touched. 

 The leaves of cotton plants had also been eaten, but not to any great 

 extent; the smaller twigs in several instances had been completely 

 girdled. The leaves of sumac trees and those of the Virginia creeper 

 had been considerablj- eaten. 



It was repeatedly noticed that the low-growing cultivated plants 

 had almost completely escaped their ravages. Melon and pumpkin 

 vines, sweet and Irish potatoes, as well as garden truck of all kinds, 

 were remarkably exempt. The same is also true of the weeds growing 

 in and around the cultivated fields, with the single exception of the 

 rag-weed {Ambrosia trijida), which was somewhat eaten by them. The 

 other, kinds, such as Spanish-needles {Bidens frondosa), knot- weed 

 {Polygonum, aviculare), smartweed {Polygonum 'pennsylvamcum), James- 

 town weed {Datura stramonium), and sand-briar {Solauum carolinense), 

 were scarcely at all eaten. The grasshoppers in all stages sometimes 

 congregated in large numbers in low places in wheat stubble overgrown 

 with weeds; still the latter showed no traces of having been eaten. In 

 such places the onlj^ plants which gave evidences of having been eaten 

 to any extent were the young plants of volunteer wheat, and these had 

 been gnawed down until scarcely a vestige of them remained. Even 

 the grass growing in such places had not been molested. 



Millet had been somewhat eaten, but where this grew by the side of 

 a field of corn it was plainly to be seen that the leaves of the latter 

 were preferred to those of the millet. The grasshoppers did not appear 

 to attack the heads of the millet, confining their attention solely to 

 the leaves; and, so far as observed, they had not succeeded in com- 

 pletely destroying a single field, although the yield of several fields had 

 been considerably reduced as a result of their attacks. Xor had they, 

 so far as observed, completely destroyed a single field of corn. In the 

 majority of instances the corn in the ear was too far advanced to be 

 seriously injured by the loss of the leaves. The greatest loss, therefore, 

 will be in the fodder, since in this section the farmers depend largely 

 on their corn as food for the cattle daring the winter season, and this 

 will have lost much of its value from having been stripped of its leaves. 



