THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 155 
been desolated by locusts. In May I visited Martin county, 
and saw the beginning of their ravages. I laid the facts 
before the governor. The plague has increased. Many 
homes are desolated. They have the right to look to us for 
relief. They are our own flesh and blood. They are our 
brothers. They are God’s children. The scourge is an 
awful one. It may be for our sins. It may be to try our 
faith in God. It may be to test our humanity. I ask your 
prayers and your alms. I recommend that an offering shall 
be taken up on the last Sunday in July, and that a further 
special contribution of money and provisions shall also be 
taken at our annual harvest-home festival. Please send your 
offerings to Hon. Isaac Atwater, Minneapolis, who will send 
them to the committee in St. Paul. Praying God to bless 
you, your friend and bishop,—H. B. Wuiprre.’ Extract 
from a widow’s letter in Brown county :—‘I mortgaged my 
farm to get seed last spring. Allis lost. What to do I do 
not know. It would take a tear out of a stone to hear the 
people talk. I had anice piece of barley almost ready to 
cut. There is nothing left but the straw, the heads lying 
thick on the ground. Dear bishop, I am almost heart-broken, 
and nearly crazy, to think of the long, cold winter, and 
nothing to depend on. May God help us. May the Lord 
look to every orphan and widow, and put it in the hearts of 
his children to help. The widow must not plead in vain.’ 
The bishop also issued a form of prayer for relief from the 
plague of locusts, to be used in the churches throughout his 
diocese. From the September Report of the Department of 
Agriculture, at Washington, we cull the following note from 
Kansas :—‘ The late summer and fall crops have been almost 
entirely destroyed by grasshoppers. The common jumping 
grasshopper did much damage through the early part of the 
season, but about the middle of August clouds of the flying 
ones made their appearance over the county, devouring and 
destroying vast quantities of vegetation. Gardens were 
quickly eaten up, corn-fields were stripped of leaves, and in 
many cases the corn was entirely eaten off; fruit trees are 
left with naked branches, and in many cases the half-ripened 
fruit is left hanging on the trees, presenting a sickening sight 
of death and destruction. In addition to the actual loss by 
devastation, the loss caused by discouragement will be greater. 
