﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 103 



" April 23. Vast numbers of the locusts have p^one off, leaving only those of ten- 

 der age, but possessing wonderful appetites. Some of them got oft by flight, but the 

 bulk kept on, on foot, towards the northwest, followed and preyed upon by hundreds 

 of Black Hawks, or rather Buzzards, I think the Falco Harlani. 



" April 29. Still a few left, but no more than the poultry and I can manage. 



"I saved about two-thirds of my garden ; but by constant toil. 



" None copulated before leaving, and of course no eggs were left to perpetuate the 

 eurse, and it may be many years before they again visit this now sufficiently oppressed 

 Gountrj'. 



Letter from Mr. S. T. Kelsey, Hutchinson, Kans., Forester to the Atchison, Topeka and 

 Santa Fe R. R. Co,; written August ,7, 1S74. 



The migratory grasshoppers {Galoptenus spretus) have again appeared in Kansas, 

 and [ hereby send you a report of their operations as I had promised. I lirst saw 

 them at Hutchinson, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Kailroad, where they 

 appeared on Sunday, July 2G, at about 6 o'clock i'. m. They were so thick in the air 

 that they appeared like a heavy snow storm ; those high in the air forming apparently 

 light lieecy clouds, while those dropping to the earth resembled Hakes of falling snow. 

 Next morning, Monday, the 27th, at daylight, the country was literally covered with 

 grasshoppers. Soon after sunrise, they collected on the growing crops, young trees, 

 etc., and commenced eating, and before night had eaten the leaves from almost every 

 green thing. All that I know of their leaving unhurt is sorghum, castor beans and 

 honey locust trees. They did but little harm in most places to the Cottonwood, box 

 elder, Osage orange, elm, black walnut and oak, and such piairie weeds and grasses as 

 were a little dried. They have worked some upon every tree that I have, except the 

 honey locust. In some places, they have eaten the leaves, bark, and even the wood of 

 the one and two year growths. On Tuesday morning, the 28th, I went west on the 

 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Kailroad, and found that the grasshoppers reached the 

 Arkansas Valley, as far west as Larned, on Sunday evening ; on Monday, they appeared 

 as far west as Pierceville ; on Tuesday, as far as Aubrey ; and on Wednesday, at 2 p. m., 

 they appeared in force at Granada, Col,, the terminus of the Atchison, Topeka and 

 Santa Fe Kailroad. I am told by persons who have come down the Kansas Pacific 

 Railway that they extend on that line from Junction City, Kans., to Denver, Col.— a 

 distance in direct line of about 450 miles. I have not been able to learn whether they 

 extend west of Denver. They seem to be moving a little west of south— the lirst of the 

 column occupying, as near as I can learn, nearly a straight line, at about right angles 

 with the direction they are moving. The wind appears to change their course a little, 

 but, I think, not very much. 



They strip the country as they go, except the old, tough grasses and some things I 

 noticed before, and then rise and lly— probably to the front of the column. 1 am not 

 able yet to ascertain certainly liow wide the column is, but it must be 200 to 300 miles 

 in width. They are doubtless the same that have been destroying the crops of West- 

 ern Iowa and Minnesota, and from the notes that I get from the north, I expect they 

 have, in their course, destroyed all the growing crops of Central and Western Ne- 

 braska, as well as Kansas. They have not commenced to copulate yet, aud will likely 

 pass down into Texas or New Mexico to deposit their eggs. 



I was told yesterday, by parties just from the north, that another column was 

 moving down farther east, and taking a more easterly course, and would, if they kept 

 on, strike through Eastern Kansas ; however, I do not believe the story. AVill post 

 you if they do come. I learn from reports, and from parties who have traveled in Brit- 

 ish America, that they breed far up into that country, aud as far south as Mexico. 

 Thus it appears that nearly one-half of all the territory of the United States, excepting 

 Alaska, is subject at intervals to the devastation of this migratory grasshopper, and it 

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