﻿148 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



fore uninjured ; corn was too dry and hard to suit their taste. Th& 

 damage was chiefly done to the young wheat, which they made a clean 

 sweep of in many localities — chiefly in the southern counties, where 

 it was already sown. Pastures were injured so as to oblige very early 

 feeding of stock. The principal damage was done to garden truck, 

 and tender trees and shrubs ; and compared to the injury of the Chinch 

 Bug the aggregate damage by locusts was slight; while some of my 

 correspondents considered these last a benefit on account of the abun- 

 dant and fattening food they supplied to poultry and hogs. 



11 — With the exception of Fall plowing and collecting and feeding 

 the insects to hogs, no remedies or attempts to destroy the pests are 

 reported. 



12 — The answers to this question are summed up on the map, 



Kansas — While the injuries caused by the invasion of 1874 was 

 comparitively slight in Missouri it was very great in Kansas. The 

 locusts swept down upon that State in overwhelming hordes from the 

 plains of Colorado on the west, and the fields of Nebraska on the 

 north, in many instances clearing off" all traces of vegetation in a few 

 hours. The corn crop, not being as advanced as it was in our own 

 State upon their advent, was ruined by them, I have newspaper and 

 private reports of the appearance of the insects in all the counties, 

 except Clarke, Comanche, Gove, Doniphan, Graham, Greenwood, Har- 

 per, Hodgeman, Kiowa, Neosho, Ness, Pratt, Sumner, Staff'ord, Trego 

 and Wallace. Most of these counties are yet unorganized and do not 

 exist, except upon the maps, the population being very limited and of a 

 transient character. They were undoubtedly overrun like the rest, for 

 Mr. Chas. S. Davis, of Junction City, who sent out postal-card queries 

 over the State, informs me that he has reports from Doniphan, Co- 

 manche, Greenwood, Neosho and Sumner; and Mr. Alfred Gray, who 

 has published full returns in his excellent report for 1874, as Secretary 

 of the State Board of Agriculture, informs me that no county was free 

 from visitation. He writes: "I have consulted with several reliable 

 gentlemen concerning the appearance in tiie unorganized portion of 

 the State, and find that the visitation was general. The representa- 

 tive from Ford county, Mr. Wright, says that south of his locality, in 

 the Indian Territory, they appeared in immense clouds and would dip 

 down at long intervals, and would as suddenly leave." 



From the monthly returns published by Mr. Gray, it appears that 34 

 counties reported products enough to enable them to bridge over the 

 Winter. Thirty counties reported 1,842 families, aggregating 9,154 per- 

 sons reduced to destitution. The press of the country has been full 



