﻿70 EIGHTH ANNUAL BEPORT 



of this county is almost a desert, there being scarcely a vestige of anything green re- 

 maining to be seen. They don't seem to have any definite direction to travel, but at 

 present they are moving southeast, and, if they continue in that course, the entire crop 

 of this county will be destroyed. The largest are as yet not more than half grown, 

 and will probably not be able to fly for one month or longer, while many are yet hatch- 

 ing. [Subsequent events proved this incorrect: the bulk of them left by the middle of 

 June.] Our larmers are so alarmed that some are leaving their farms, while many 

 woula do so but are unable. Grass on the prairies is destroyed in certain localities and 

 people are compelled to drive their stock some distance for grazing Manj' farmers 

 have planted their corn the second time, and will plant again if the locusts leave soon, 

 while many have exhausted their means and will be unable to buy seed or provisions, 

 and will actually starve unless they receive immediate relief. These are serious facts, 

 and are entirely free from exaggeration. 



A mass meeting of the citizens of the county convened at the 

 court house on May 21st, to devise some plan of relief for the desti- 

 tute. Dr. J. H. Britts was called to the chair, and Thos. Day elected 

 secretary. A committee consisting of Messrs. McLane, Tewell, Woods, 

 Gantt, and Dr. Salmon was appointed to prepare a plan of action. 

 This committee reported as follows : 



Your committee have come to the conclusion that we have not the means in our 

 midst to relieve the necessities of our poor. Tiie great destitution is alarming. We 

 must have aid. We are now in the midst of a famine. The people of Henry county 

 have always contributed liberally when other sections needed our aid ; believing then 

 that an appeal to those portions of our country that have been blessed will bring con- 

 tributions of corn and bacon for our poor, we are in favor of sending duly accredited 

 agents to solicit aid from the people of other portions of the country, and especially 

 the great centers of commerce. 



Committees were appointed to visit Illinois and Iowa to solicit 

 aid. They carried the seal of the county court, and were instructed to 

 receive and distribute contributions. The followingresolutions, adopted 

 by the meeting, express the intense feeling that pervaded the county: 



Whereas, Owing to the fact that there is now great and wide-spread alarm among 

 all classes of citizens of this county at the ravages of the grasshoppers and chinch 

 bugs, and that much harm will necessarily inure to the growing crops of the county, 

 and in many instances the flax crop is already destroj'ed ; Therefore be it 



Resolved, 1st, That to prevent the destitution that must necessarily follow if the 

 crops of the county are destroyed, and not replenished, we earnestly recommend that 

 farmers do not cease to plant as long as a crop is likely to mature at all ; that after it is 

 too late to plant corn, we recommend that Hungarian and millet be sown lor the purpose 

 of supplying the deficiency of the hay crop. 



2(1, That it is only by earnest and p-irsistent effort that we will be able to supply 

 the loss caused by these pests, and to some extent prevent the calamity that now 

 threatens us. 



3rd, That the chair appoint a committee of three to proceed to Jefferson City, 

 and in behalf of the tax-payers of Henry county memorialize the State Board of 

 Equalization now in session, to put the valuation of property in Henry county at its 

 present cash value. 



Jackson County. — The devastation in other adjacent counties 

 was repeated in this. Mr. Z. F. Kagan, of Independence, with whom I 

 spent some time during the most critical period, writes : 



While young they did but little damage, neither did they excite much alarm, 

 since persons who had resided here, when they were here in 18(57, assured us that but 

 little damage might be apprehended, inasmuch as in 'G7 they oidy cleaned up the dog- 

 fennel along the public highways and the weeds out of the corn fields. But lo, and be- 



