﻿82 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



upon them by the farming community, in which both sexes and all 

 ages eagerly participated. A letter to the New York Worlds dated 

 June 8th, has the following: " You can form an idea, not only of the 

 energetic way in which the people have gone to work, but also of the- 

 magnitude of their task, when I tell you that two thousand bushels 

 have already been paid for in this (Blue Earth) county up to last 

 night, and they only commenced on Friday last." Taking the different 

 counties together more than fifty thousand bushels of locusts were 

 destroyed. By means of these vigorous measures from two-thirds to- 

 three-fourths of the crops were saved, while the price paid for the 

 insects doubtless made some amends for what was destroyed. 



A dispatch to the Chicago Tribune,, dated July 13th, states : "The 

 first foreign hoppers appeared on the Sioux City Road, alighting be- 

 tween Lake Crystal and St. James on Wednesday last."' A few days 

 later they were observed at New Ulm, flying southeast, and at noon 

 of the same day struck the line of the road at Madelia, St. James, 

 Fountain Lake, Windom and Heron Lake ; covering the track for 

 about 50 miles of its length. They were described as being " uneasy, 

 most of the time in the air, and, except in certain isolated or scattered 

 fields, as doin^ but little damage." 



From such data as can be procured it would seem that there were 

 no invasions into the State from the original breeding grounds of the 

 insect; but that the '" foreign " swarms were from the States immedi- 

 ately to the south and west, and were probably deflected from their 

 usual course by adverse winds. The soil and climate of Minnesota 

 being peculiarly congenial to them, they deposited their eggs in pro- 

 digious numbers and probably died there. About the middle of 

 August Gov. Davis appointed a commission consisting of J. C. Wise of 

 Mankato, Warren Smith, of Graham Lakes, and Allen Whitman, of St. 

 Paul, to investigate the history of the insect and its incursions; the 

 purpose being to collect the most complete information possible, 

 with a view to organized effort next year for the destruction of all lo- 

 custs appearing in the State. The following letter from Mr. Wise, 

 chairman of that commission, contains such interesting statements 

 that I reproduce it, notwithstanding the complimentary allusions: 



C. V. Riley — Dear Sir: I received copies of the Rural World, and as 1 take the 

 Prairie Farmer, am also in possession of your equally valuable articles in the issues of 

 the Uth and 18th. I have read your report, and your observations and descriptions are 

 so very accurate that we shall draw largely upon them in making- our report, for 

 which full credit will be given. Indeed, you are so far in advance ot anything else that 

 1 have seen that 1 feel that our State, and indeed the whole Northwest, owe you a debt 

 of gratitude for your investigations of this very important subject. 



You state correctly that while a few hoppers may hatch this Fall, the great bulk 

 will not hatch until next Spring We have heard of some hatching this Fall, but in 

 our travels we have seen but very few. It was the same last Fall. A few hatched, and 

 some were deluded by that fact into the belief that most of them would, and we should 



