﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 153 



in Congress, acts for the relief of our people have passed that body. Extension of 

 time has been given homesteaders, and a cash appropriation of $30,000 has been made 

 with which to purchase seeds the coming Spring. 



Iowa — As already stated ia the chronological chapter, the Rocky 

 Mountain Locust* invaded the northwestern counties of Iowa in the 

 Sutpmer of 1873, and much of the injury in 1874 resulted from their 

 progeny. Fresh swarms came, however, in 1874, and the western 

 counties of Algona, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmett, 

 Harrison, Humboldt, Jasper, Kossuth, Lyon, O'Brien, Osceola, Palo 

 Alto, Pocahontas, Plymouth, Sioux, Winnebago and Woodbury, suf- 

 fered more or less. East of the line indicated in my map, Iowa suf- 

 fered nothing from these pests, and as the drouth was less severe than 

 in other parts of the country, and the crops good, the distress in the 

 ravaged counties was easily relieved. 



A committee appointed to investigate the extent of devastation 

 find of suffering in 1874, made the following cheering report to the 

 Governor : 



AVe have heard, in the northwestern counties, of only a single report of eggs laid 

 by the grasshoppers, and the pests left us too early for egg deposits ; and we trust and 

 believe they have left us for many years if not forever. The vast majority of those 

 whom the benevolence of the people aided last year, and kept upon their farms and 

 homesteads, have raised good crops, and with good farms and smiling faces they speak 

 of the kind hearts who aided them in their hour of need. Now, this year, we want 

 more aid, and must have it, to assist the settlers in Kossuth, Emmett and other sections 

 of counties. It will take a large amount of supplies to preserve homes and iflake 

 homes happy and comfortable there. Let the people with their magnificent crops and 

 great hearts, pour out of all their abundance, and save the little farms of those who 

 are striving to keep their little homesteads for themselves, their wives and children. 



Minnesota — As in the case of Iowa, Minnesota was visited along 

 her western border by these insects in 1873, and she had consequently 

 to suffer from the young of that invasion in addition to the fresh 

 swarms that overspread very much the same territory in 1874. The 

 counties ravaged in 1873 were thinly settled, mostly by homesteaders 

 with little means, and the consequent suffering was therefore very 

 great. The value of the crops destroyed in 1873 was estimated 

 officially : 



Wheat $2,000,000 



Oats 528,000 



Corn 256,000 



Other crops.. 250,000 



Total $3,034,000 



♦My friend, J. M. ShaQer, in his Report for 1873, as Secretary of the State Agricultural Society, 

 states (p. 25) that the insect was the common Bed-legged species (femur-rubrum) ; but specimens of 

 this 1873 invasion, which he kindly sent me, are spretus, sure enough; and other specimens collected in 

 1874, and sent me by Professors Bessey .ind McAfee, of the Iowa Agricultural College, tell the same 

 tale. 



