124 



1867, in the parts of Kansas which I visited, l-8th of the field-crops 

 and 7-8ths of the garden-crops. The Dog-fennel [Maruta cotula, 

 D C.?] they swept clean off everywhere; but that the farmers could 

 very conveniently spare." 



VARIOUS IRRUPTIONS OF THE HATEFUL GRASSHOPPER IN BY- 

 GONE YEARS. 



Usually — as is also the case Avith the Migratory Locust, (or, as 

 we Ainericans should call them, "Migratory Grasshoppers/') of the 

 Old World and of Scripture — these Grasshopper invasions only take 

 place at distant intervals of time. For example, 46 years before 

 the invasion of 1866, there was a swarm descended from the Eocky 

 Mountains, A. D. 1820, upon Western Missouri, doubtless stopping by 

 the way in Kansas, though, as that State was then uninhabited save 

 by the Red Indians, we have no record of the fact. The following 

 paragraphs afford all the information that I have been able to glean 

 on this very interesting subject. 



"We were informed by old residents of West Missouri and some 

 of the Indians, that long ago, I think it was in the year 1820, there 

 was just such a visitation of Grasshoppers as is now afflicting us. They 

 came in the autumn by millions, devouring every green thing, but 

 too late to do much harm. They literally filled the earth with their 

 eggs, and then died. The next spring they hatched out, did hut little 

 harm (?), and when full-fledged left for parts unknown. Other dis- 

 tricts of country have been visited by them; but, so far as I could 

 learn, they have done but little harm after the first year." — S. T. Kel- 

 sey, of Ottawa^ Kansas, in Prairie Farmer, June 15, 1867, p. 395. 



"A Missouri Paper publislies a statement by an old settler, that 

 great numbers of Grasshoppers appeared in September, 1820, doing 

 much damage. The next spring they hatched out, destroying the cot- 

 ton, flax, hemp, ivheat and tobacco crops; but the corn escaped un- 

 injured. About the middle of June they all disappeared, flying off 

 in a south-east direction." — Wester7i Rural, 1867. 



Again : In the year 1856, or ten years before the invasion of 

 1866, and thirty-six year after the invasion just referred to, there 

 descended from the Rocky Mountains another swarm, apparently of 

 these same Hateful Grasshoppers, which — perhaps owing to the more 

 northerly direction of the prevalent winds — took a more northerly 

 course than the invading army of 1866 did, and swooped down upon 

 Minnesota. In the Practical Entomologist, (II., p. 3,) I have printed 

 all that I have been able to collect on this subject. Whether the dam- 

 age said by the writer of that article to have been done by these in- 



