GRASSHOPPERS IN GENERAL. 13 



FORD COUNTY. In Ford county the conditions were much the 

 same as in Edwards county. Damage was local. In one field there 

 would be large numbers of grasshoppers and in other fields near by 

 there would not be an unusual number. An examination of the 

 species doing the damage showed that the one which by its numbers 

 was the cause of a great part of the injury was the yellow grasshopper,* 

 Melanoplus differ entialis. There was also present the Two-striped 

 Locust, Melanoplus bivitattus. When I first entered the county this 

 Two-striped Locust was everywhere in the adult stage. While upon the 

 first day of my investigations I did not see more than half a dozen 

 adult individuals of the yellow locust. At different times during my 

 investigations I tried to ascertain the relative numbers of these two 

 specif s, by catching grasshoppers just as they came, and concluded 

 that Ihere were about twenty-five yellow locusts for every one of the 

 Two-striped Locust. More will be said in another place concerning the 

 different species in cultivated grounds and adjoining pastures. 



FINNEY COUNTY. By request, I went to Finney county to make an 

 investigation of the condition there. In company with Mr. C. S. 

 Hambleton, of Garden City, I drove first west of Garden City, to the 

 ranch of Mr. John A. Stevens, where on the n:>rth side of the road 

 was a fine alfalfa field, bringing forth its second crop, while on the 

 other side of the road was another alfalfa field whose first crop was 

 being stripped by the native grasshoppers. About two miles farther 

 west we came to a large apple, peach and plum orchard on the north 

 side of the road. The apples were on the north boundary of the or- 

 chard, the peaches in the middle, and the plums on the side near the 

 road. The apple orchard had been stripped of leaves, and in some 

 places three or four grasshoppers could be found eating at a single 

 apple. The peaches had been eaten off, leaving the bare pits clinging 

 to the twigs. The younaj twig growth of peach trees had been eaten 

 in preference to the foliage. A man was there at work building 

 smudges to turn the locusts from the plums, which were almost 

 ready to gather. Upon inquiry, I learned that this farm had been 

 largely seeded to alfalfa, but during the last two years had been pas- 

 tured. The damage done to this place was the greatest that I ob- 

 served in any of the thirteen counties that I visited. I believe the 

 cause is so evident that at this point will say no more than simply 

 to call attention to the fact that the ground upon this plat had not 



* This was the term commonly applied by the farmers of that region. Another 

 locust bears this common name, and this one is generally spoken of as the 

 Differential Locust. In this report, however, I have frequently used the term 

 yellow locust, and wherever used it has reference to Melanoplus differ entialis. 

 I do this because this insect is quite generally known over the region covered by 

 this report as the " yellow grasshopper." The words locust and grasshopper are 

 used interchangeably. 



