﻿OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 151 



did great damage to oats and meadows in Southwest Pennsylvania, 

 and the following items doubtless refer to the same species, and will 

 show how injurious they were in Massachusetts : 



Grasshoppers in Boston. — We did not anticipate that Boston proper would 

 ever be inconvenienced by tiie pests which have proved so destructive out West, but it 

 is a fact that grasshoppers are so numerous at the South End that they destroy the 

 flowers in the baclv yards to such an extent that hens are hired or bou2:ht to clear the 

 premises and save the ornamental plants which adorn the premises. These insects are 

 not of the Western pattern, but ?re native productions. If their ravages continue, it is 

 possible some of our Western friends will be called upon to raise subscriptions for the 

 relief of the floriculturists of Boston. — IBoston Joui-nal. 



1 venture to ask your advice in a grasshopper matter. Three years ago a party of 

 farmers and othei'S in this commonwealth, tired of granite hills, gravel banks and sand 

 flats, and wishing some little latent fertility in the original soil — combined to effect, and 

 did eflect, the reclamation from the sea of about 1400 acres of what originally was ' salt 

 marsh.' We are amply satisfied of the fertility of this land, and so far, all is good. 

 Last summer, however, this land and adjoining territory was scourged with a plague 

 of locusts or grasshoppers. Whether they came in such numbers owing to the diking 

 of these 1400 acres, or whether they would, last year, have come in equal numbers 

 whether the marsh was diked or not, we cannot say. Our question is this, and is at the 

 same time the point upon which we pray your advice : Can we do anything to diminish 

 the number of these pests for next year? We could, for example, flood this whole tract 

 of land until early spring. Would this be advisable? Any points you would be kind 

 enough to give us on the matter, would be thankfully received. — [Letter from C. Hers- 

 cheJ, Boston, Mass., latter part of October. 



LOCUST FLIGHTS IX ILLINOIS IX lo75. 



The manner in which some writers have clung to the idea that 

 the Rocky Mountain Locust must overrun Missouri, Illinois, and the 

 States to the East, in spite of opposing facts, can only be accounted 

 for by inordinate love of magnifying possible danger and of making 

 as much of a sensation as possible out of any misfortune that befalls 

 a community. A certain amount of apprehension is pardonable ; and 

 that, under such apprehension, all sorts of insects, some of them, as I 

 have just shown, having no relation to locusts, should be mistaken 

 for the Rocky Mountain pest, is natural with persons who have had 

 no acquaintance with it, and are unfamiliar with its appearance. Last 

 September many prominent papers of the West gave the news that 

 the dreaded swarms had finally come into Illinois. In point of fact 

 large swarms of locusts did pass over the central portion of that State 

 early in September, and more particularly over parts of Livingston, 

 McLean, Vermillion, Ford, and Champaign counties. Small and scat- 

 tered flights were also seen later in the month. Some writers jumped 

 to the conclusion that said swarms were of the Rocky Mountain spe- 

 cies, without, however, giving a particle of proof. There is nothing 

 absolutely impossible in the occurrence of scattering swarms of the 

 genuine spreius in Illinois the year following a general invasion such 

 as we had in 1874, for while I have expressed the opinion that the 

 species will never do any damage east of the 94th Meridian, I have 

 admitted that it may temporarily extend to some distance beyond 



