﻿74 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



They have destroyed all the gardens in this vicinity, not sparing: the onions or 

 peas. The rose-bushes, instead of presenting one solid muss of bloom, look like so 

 many bundles of sticks stuck about in the yards. They are niaterialiy injuring the 

 young fruit trees as they climb upon them to roost, ^nd during the night they cut off 

 ■every green branch. The grapes have been cut the same way. In fact we have but 

 little left. The pastures are full, and our farmers are sending their stock away to hunt 

 .grass. Some have felled trees for their stock to browse upon the green boughs. They 

 have destroyed nearly all the corn and have been busy at work in the wheat fields, 

 eating all the blades, leaving only the bare stalks standing. Every evening these stalks 

 .are crowded with the little pests, and it is feared they will destroy the bioom of the 

 wheat, as they have nothing left upon which to feed. 



Farmers drove away their stock to more favored localities, and for 

 such as they were obliged to retain they cut down linden trees for 

 feed. No concerted measures for relief are reported. The Platte 

 City Landmarh reports by the 24th of May, that the people had be- 

 come more or less disheartened, and had about concluded that no 

 •effort of theirs could stay the ravages of the pests. Whole fields of 

 wheat, corn, grass and most of the gardens in that county had been 

 swept as clean of every green thing as if a simoon had blasted them. 

 An army of the insects, about one hundred yards wide, attempted to 

 <;ross Platte E,iver, at Darnall's Ferry. For miles up and down the 

 river the water was a living mass of them. Mr. Darnall at once sum- 

 moned his whole force of farm hands, consisting of twelve men, who, 

 ■with the aid of clubs and sticks, kept them from returning to shore, 

 or crossing, until they became exhausted and floated off with the cur- 

 rent, Mr. Darnall thinks that at least five hundred bushels were thus 

 destroyed. He thus saved about one hundred acres of as fine wheat 

 as he ever raised. 



Ray County. — A gentleman residing at Richmond writes, May 23 : 



Since the reception of your note, I have been at some pains to gather the facts 

 you asked for, and I send them in a shape as much condensed as possible. After riding 

 about over the county for two days, and talking to reliable farmers who have been 

 pretty much all over it, the truth learned seems about to be that we have been worse 

 «eared than hurt. The grasshoppers are not general over the county. In some places 

 where they are they have eaten considerable, and in other places none at all. Myriads 

 of them are dying. In some places so great is the mortality that the stench is sicken- 

 ing. Our general crop prospects are good. We have had tine rains. So far our grass- 

 hoppers seem to get no wings. From the places where they wore hatched out to the 

 places where they now are, the distance traveled won't amount to fifty yards. We are 

 .all hoping for the best, and believe the worst is over. 



The following from the correspondence of the Kansas City Times 

 shows the condition of things June 14th, nearly a month later : 



The grasshoppers are still here, and doing a great deal of damage. They have 

 left the high lands in places and gone to the bottoms. Thousands ot them are daily 

 tlying away. A great manv of them were seen flying on Sunday, from 11 a. m., to 5 p. 

 M.. going in a northwesterly direction. Great numbers of them dropped in Camden, 

 and pounced upon the lirst green thing that came in their way. Crops continue to 

 suffer ; many lariners have turned their stock in on their wheat; oats are going every 

 day, and yoiuig corn is badly injured, and in many places entirely destroyed. Farm- 

 •ers are almost despairing of a chance to replant anything. Tobacco plants are all 



