﻿64 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



By the end of May the condition began to change for the better^ 

 and by the middle of July everything looked promising. There was 

 just rain enough to make the corn grow rapidly. But little wheat had 

 been sown; oats produced a fair crop ; flax yielded about one-quarter 

 of a crop. A large amount of castor beans was planted, and the crop 

 was excellent. 



Buchanan County. — By the end of May the reports from this 

 county were various and the opinions of farmers differed widely. The 

 insects were in spots. Some farms had not been touched at all, while 

 others had been stripped of every green thing. They impeded the 

 progress of the trains on the railroads, and in some places created a 

 most disagreeable stench. In most parts of the county so completely 

 did the locusts do their work, that, had it not been for the foliage 

 borne by the loftier timber, the general aspect of nearly all parts of 

 the county would have been that of Winter. 



The following letter, written June 7, by J. S. Talbot, of Easton,to 

 the Hon. Waller Young, and read before the State Board of Equaliza- 

 tion, then in session, con-v eys, perhaps, the most correct idea of affairs : 



In answer to your inquiry, I would say that our prospects are gloomy indeed. I 

 think by the time the hoppers leave here they will have devoured everything green. 

 The crops are about all destroyed now, together with meadows and pastures. The 

 country would present the appearance of winter if it were not for the foliage of the 

 timber. The leaves are all stripped oft' the hazel bushes. I think they will live on us 

 yet some three weeks. If they stay tliis length of time God only knows what will be 

 the result with this people. The farmers are generally in good spirits. Some are 

 planting, others are gomg to commence in eight or ten days, hoping the 'hoppers will 

 leave bv the time the corn comes up. The outlook is a dark one. There are but few 

 who have the seed, fewer who have anything to support teams necessary to raise crops. 

 Do all you can to reduce the burdens of the tax-paying farmers. Many of them have 

 not paid last year's taxes, and what is to be done in tlie premises I am unable to say. 

 It seems to me there ought to be a called session of the Legislature and some relief 

 aflForded in the shape of stay-laws as to taxes and debts. So far the people seem very 

 indulgent as to debtors. There is but little money here. My crops are all gone— fifty 

 acres of corn, the same amount of wheat, twenty acres of oats and fifty acres of 

 meadovv. The most of the meadows are killed outright. Much of the stock is being 

 taken north into Gentry, DeKalb and other counties. It would astonish you to see the 

 courage of the farmers, the surroundings considered. They are determined to keep up 

 courage and hope for success ; will not beg or ask lor outside assistance till the last ves- 

 tige of hope is gone. If the hoppers will leave in two weeks we can raise plenty to 

 wniter on. 



The request there made to reduce the taxable valuation of the 

 property of the county was granted, and no further measures for gen- 

 eral relief were adopted. 



Caldwell County. — The injury was confined to the extreme south- 

 west corner of the county. Reports from C. L. Gould, of Hamilton, and 

 D. W. Monroe, of Kidder, show that even here the damage was slight. 



Cass County. — Sustained perhaps the most damage of any of the 

 counties in the afllicted district. The general expression that it was 



