18 GRASSHOPPERS IN GENERAL. 



fields suffered one-fourth, some one-third; the 'hopper seems to breed right in the 

 field. There was no effort put forth to destroy them. The farmers do not plow 

 their ground; they generally disk or drill in the grain. I think deep plowing 

 would be a success, and in fact it has proven to be the case here this year, as 

 some of the farmers had plowed deep, and then drilled their wheat in deep, and 

 almost doubled the yield, and increased quality as well. The 'hoppers, I have ob- 

 served, appear about the middle of June, and do their work in the month of July, 

 Last year they were killed off by a little red bug or mite so small one could hardly 

 see it with the naked eye. I will send you a few specimens in a few days. They 

 are now working on the corn-fields, on the outer edge only. 



Yours truly, D. A. LONG, 



Ruleton, Sherman county, Kansas. 



DECATUR COUNTY. Reports had been sent me of trouble from 

 grasshoppers in Decatur. Observations that I took in the vicinity of 

 Dresden and Jennings showed conditions similar to those already 

 stated. At Dresden I noted a field of forty acres of corn, lying north 

 of a field of oats just harvested, almost entirely stripped, while just 

 across the road was another field of equal size entirely free from at- 

 tack. Such instances could be observed in every county where I was. 



NORTON COUNTY. It was my intention to visit a number of agri- 

 cultural localities of Norton county. I was fortunate, however, in 

 meeting in the office of Judge Case, County Surveyor J. C. Newell, 

 whose work had recently taken him over all parts of the county. Mr. 

 Newell stated that the damage in Norton was almost wholly confined to 

 alfalfa. He said of thirty pieces of alfalfa, ranging in size from ten to 

 eighty acres, he had noticed that the effects of grasshoppers were 

 noticeable more or less in all. He had observed no alfalfa fields that 

 had been entirely stripped. In some the blooms and seed had been 

 taken off, and in others spots here and there in the field had been 

 eaten to the ground. Mr. E. E. Ames, of Norton, also told me that 

 grasshoppers were doing slight damage in 100 acres of alfalfa which 

 he owned. Mr. A. J. Brunswig has large alfalfa interests in this 

 county, and on page 7 I have taken the liberty to quote a letter from 

 him, giving his observations. 



Light damages were being reported by the press from other locali- 

 ties, but I decided that the territory covered gave me a clear idea of 

 the situation in this state. So, after leaving Norton county, I re- 

 turned to my field laboratory in Edwards county to complete ob- 

 servations upon the life-history of the Differential grasshopper. 



