﻿OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 83 



escape injury. It was a delusion, for in the Spring when they began to appear, we 

 were convinced that scarcely one in a million had hatched in the Fall. 



Ill a recent trip to the region where eggs are now deposited, we found that In 

 counties where esgs> were first laid, the hopper is now formed, and with the aid of a 

 glass the eyes and even limbs may be seen. In other localities the eggs are yellow and 

 tilled with a watery substance, which induces many to think that they are rotting, but 

 which in fact is that condition incident to and preceding the formation of the insect. 



This tact, however, was pretty generally and indeed invariably observed : That the 

 glutinous rtuid which matures and forms the coating to the sack has entirely disappear- 

 ed and the eggs lie unprotected in the earth. We attribute this to the lact that the 

 heavy rains have so moistened the ground as to dissolve that coating. This, we take 

 it, is an unnatural condition, and, if so, there is ground for hope that the unusual damp- 

 ness of the earth may assist in destroying at least a portion of the eggs. This condi- 

 tion prevails to such an extent that in all our investigations it was dillicult to get out a 

 whole sack, for they would break with the ground. 



Tiie hoppers that came into tnis county last year (1874.) came from the south- 

 west. That was their course when they first flew, and when they commenced leaving 

 they continued the same direction, northeasterly. This summer — the fore part of July — 

 when they left us, they flew southwest, going in the direction from whence they had 

 come, and in depositing their eggs have occupied about the same territory they did in 

 1873, though enlarging their limits. It was observed that nearly all of this year's hop- 

 pers had in the bodies a grub or worm such as you describe in your report, and to a 

 greater extent than any previous year, causing them to die in large numbers. 



Yours etc , John C. Wise. 



Mankato, Minn., Sept. 19, 1875. 



The report made by this commission is an excellent digest of the 

 subject, and by being scattered over the State will do much good. It 

 places the amount of damage done in 1875 at two million dollars, and 

 sums up the experience of the year as follows : 



The eggs deposited in 1874, in the more northern counties of the State, began to 

 hatch in April, and the young locusts were killed by the continuous cold and wet 

 weather which followed, and damage is reported only in Becker and Todd counties. 

 The eggs are also said to have been treely destroyed by grubs in Becker county. Along 

 the Red river but few eggs were laid, and along the Mississippi they hatched in too 

 widely distributed localities to have any great eflect on the general crop. 



The chief damage of the year was done by locusts hatched in the counties of Mc- 

 Leod, Sibley, LeSueur, Nicollet, Blue Earth, Brown and Renville. The hatching pro- 

 gressed through May as usual, and in spite ot the warfare waged against the locusts, 

 the damage was great throughout all the counties named. The departure began about 

 July first, and by ttie tenth of the month it became general throughout most of the 

 districts ravaged. A fresh northwest wind would have carried the greater portion of 

 the locusts hatched in Minnesota far beyond the borders of the State, but alter strug- 

 gling awhile against a southwest wind they settled down upon the fields and continued 

 their ravages. During the remainder of the season they inflicted serious daoiage upon 

 Jackson, Martin, Murray, Cottonwood. Watonwan and Red wood counties, and slighter 

 damage upon Nobles, Rock, Lyon and Lincoln. By the end of August the locusts had 

 mostly disappeared in one way or another, and the earliness of the disappearance has 

 been accounted for by the action ot parasites, which infested the locusts abundantly 



The following observations were made by the Signal Service 

 operator at Breckenridge : 



The locusts were seen during the month of July and a part of xVugust, until about 

 the 12th ; the first seen came from the southeast, and nearly always moved with the 

 wind, especially if strong. During the month of July they were flying almost every 

 day, and at times the swarms were so dense that it was impossible to see through them 

 with a good field glass. 



The farmers state that their flying was so regular that no one paid much attention 

 to it; at times the swarms would be more dense than at others, especially if almost 

 calm. Several persons who watched them say that they think they laid but few eggs 

 in the soil this year, and predict few for the next summer. 



It will be well here to reiterate the fact that the Rocky Mountain 



