112 



the larvae that proceeded from them Avoiild do a vast amount of dam- 

 age to the young crops. But, at the same time, I distinctly foretold, 

 that the grasshoppers developed from these eggs, in 18G7, although 

 their general health Avould, perhaps, not be materially injured, would 

 yet have their generative systems so impaired by the difference in 

 food-plants, climate, density of the air, temperature, moisture, etc, 

 (or what Naturalists call the "Conditions of Life,") which they met 

 with in the lowland country, that they would become incapable of 

 jDropagating their species any further; and consequently that that 

 entire brood of grasshoppers would "then and there die out." Whence 

 I deduced the corollary, that they could never cross the Mississippi 

 and gradually spread eastward, as the Colorado Potato-bug has noto- 

 riously done, and as I prophesied before-hand that it would do. (See 

 my Paper on that insect in the Practical Entomologist for October, 

 1865.) 



Now let us bee how far the facts have verified my predictions ; 

 and if it appear that I have been a true prophet, both in the case of 

 the Colorado Potato-bug and of the Hateful Grasshopper, then I have 

 a right to ask that, for the future, some little more attention should 

 be paid to my opinions on such 3ul)jects, than to the wild fancies of 

 men, who know no more about insects and their habits and peculiari- 

 ties than a newly-born baby does of the multiplication-table. But 

 first, let us examine a few additional details as to the operations of 

 the Hateful Grasshopper in the autumn of 1866, in Texas and in Mis- 

 souri, through which States I had not previously mapped out its 

 course. 



The Hateful Ghasshofpek in Texas in 1866. • 



"Collins Co., North-east Texas, Oct., 1866. — Grasshoppers ap- 

 peared in the north-west part of this county about September 1st, 

 and destroyed all the wheat that had come up, and then passed on 

 to the south-west. They have nearly disappeared. They fly very 

 high, and in some places were so thick, that we estimated them at 

 one to the square inch." — Monthly Report Agricultural Department, 

 1866, p. 441. 



The Hateful Grasshopper in Missouri in 1866. 



"Leavcnvjorth, North-east Kansas, Oct. .18, 1866. — Our eastern 

 m.ail a few days ago was late, because the train was stopped by Grass- 

 hoppers. The track became so slippery by the crushing of their bodies, 

 that the wheels would not turn." — Private letter from C. H. Cashing. 



"Atchison, North-east Kansas, Feb., 1867. — In September, 1866, 

 the Grasshoppers spread over the whole of Kansas, and before cold 

 weather they advanced about 50 miles into j\Iissouri. They devoured 



