﻿150 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



out such assistance, the farmers in many counties would be unable tO' 

 obtain seed to put in their crops or to carry on their legitimate farm 

 operations. Yet in face of the constant appeals from thousands of 

 sufferers, supplemented by two special messages from the Governor, 

 in one of which he says: "I tremble to anticipate the judgment of 

 mankind upon a commonwealth which, having encouraged appeals to 

 the charity of the people of the whole country, steadfastly refuses to 

 relieve a single want at the expense of its own treasury " — the Legis- 

 lature finally adjourned without making any appropriation whatever. 

 Yet there was abundant means in the treasury and the appropriations 

 made for other purposes exceed half a million dollars. The ill repute 

 which this neglect of her Legislature in the hour of need will bring^ 

 upon the State will stick to her like the shirt of Nessus. 



The following extracts from my private correspondence will indi- 

 cate the periods at which the insects reached different parts of the 

 State : 



My interest in the cause in which you labor is my excuse for addressing you at 

 this tinie. By virtue of your office you are public property, and the people ot Kansas 

 feel as if you belonged to us as well as Missouri. The main subject upon which I wish 

 to write j'ou is the "grasshoppers." Swarms of grasshoppers have been appearing 

 in different parts of the State since the 15th of July. It is only within ten days that 

 they have appeared in this immediate vicinity, and from what observation I have been 

 able to make I cannot see that they have laid any eggs yet. They eat as voraciously as 

 any I ever heard of. But for this fact, I would think they raio-ht be a brood hatched 

 somewhere on the plains between here and the mountains, and that they will not breed. 

 I understand that the only method of determining the difference between the barren 

 brood hatched in the low lands and the swarms from the mountains is in the time they 

 make their flight. In the Spring of 1869, when I came to this place, I watched the 

 Spring brood hatch, and they all left as early as the middle of June. * * * — [Robert 

 Milliken, Emporia, Lyon county, Kansas, Aug. 10, 1874. 



I send you by mail a specimen of the devouring host. On Sunday evening, July 

 26th, they came down upon us by millions and soon cleaned our corn-fields and or- 

 chards, and then stripped the trees of their foliage. One week ago the bulk of these 

 left, and we felt relieved of our fears tliat they would interfere with wheat sowing; but 

 yesterday the sky was darkened with a new installment. There is no corn left even 

 for seed in this county, and they are ruining the orchards. I send you some twigs. 

 Often the trunk is girdled when they are 3 inches through. Nothing comes amiss to 

 them, though they seem to have some preference for food. Box Elder does not 

 seem to be palatable to them, or Black Walnut, still they will eat them, and large trees 

 are stripped of leaves. Tobacco they seem to like, and you can see bunches big as 

 your fist fighting and struggling to get a taste of some old quid that has been thrown 

 in the road. To attempt to give any idea of the destruction of these plagues is useless,. 

 for the general public will not believe one-half the truth, but set us down as liars. — [H. 

 L. Jones, Salina, Saline county, Kansas, Aug. 13, 1874. 



I send you a few specimens of our ''hoppers." They have destroyed the entire 

 corn crops of Central and Western Kansas and left thousands of people in absolute 

 destitution. They have tarried with us longer this year than usual, having been de- 

 tained by adverse winds from making their usual annual southerly migration. They 

 do not usually trouble us unless stopped in their course south by currents counter to 

 the direction of their flight. — [N. 13. Truland, Cawker City, Mitchell county, Kans.,. 

 Aug. 11, 1874. 



On Saturday the grasshoppers came down upon us here at Ottawa. They had 

 been for some days to the north and east of us, and on Saturday a north wind brought 

 them. They are in and upon everything, thick as bees in swarming time. I send you: 



