PACKARD.] THE LOCUST IN COLORADO. 599 



from the north, i. e., Wyoming: ; whiU^ those liatched earlier in the season 

 on the plains, went southward. " Signal service observations made at 

 Denver show that from the 2()th of Jnly to the end of August swarms 

 repeatedly ])assed, and invariably (rom tlie north and northwest, not- 

 withstau<linj;- that the i)revailing- direction of the wind was from the 

 south." (Kiley's report.) 



i also add a letter from Mr. Meeker, published iu the New York 

 Tribuue : 



Grekley, Colo., May 25. 



We are trying every way we can tliink of to drive away the grasyhopptTS, and wo 

 are now iu tlic midst of the battle, but tlie wounds of the conflict are mainly iullicti'd 

 by tljc insects. Ordiiiuriiy, the j^rasslioppers arc not batched out of their ef;<;s uufil 

 the 1st of June. Before this period the ground is so wet and cold in conseciuence of 

 the spring rains that the insects arc not hatched out. This year we had no s])ring 

 rains to speak of, hence the ground was warm and dry, and the insects appeared abonfc 

 the "^oth of Aiiril. At this time the wheat was just starting, and the insects ate it as 

 fast as it grew. Our wheat is sown in February and March, and it is of a superior 

 quality, better than the winter-wheat of tl e Eastern States. If there had been tho 

 usual spring rains it w'ould have been at least a loot high by tho time the grasshop- 

 pers api)eaied. 



Wheat that is starting is greatly injured by being irrigated, and usually it does not 

 need irrigation. If the soil is light tbe water quickly cuts gulches which constantly 

 deepen, and flooding the ground all over is impossible, especially if the land inclines 

 any way. Bat alter the grain has grown to some height its roots till the surface-earth 

 and the water cannot cut through them, and it forces its way hither and thither anu^ng 

 the blades of grain, much as one is obliged to do in a crowd of men. So it spreads 

 over the held and evenly with a little aid. When wheat is in this condition, and the 

 young gr-(sshoppers are hatched in sandy places open to the sun, they cannot eat the 

 wheat as fast as it grows, aud besides it is an easy matter, by irrigating the fields, to 

 drown them, or at least to kee]i their numbers small. But even when they are eating 

 the wheat in a half a dozen fiehls, or in a dozen flclds iii one neighborhood, as fast as 

 it grows, there will be many other fields where the wheat is not molested, aud by the 

 time the jiests are grown aud have wings to fly a large breadth of wheat will be strong 

 and vigorous, and consequently will mature. Usually, therefore, the young grasshop- 

 pers — which came to our lields only once before, two years ago — do but little damage, 

 aud the average yield of wheat during the year mentioned was as great as that of the 

 Eastern States; while in ordinary years it is more than double. In this place and all 

 through Colorado the gardens are as bare as iu January, lor no attempt has been made 

 to plant vegetables. The grasshoppers do not touch pease, however, and these are 

 growiig fast. 



Bur. most of the mourning is about the condition of the wheat-fields. We have on 

 tho northwest about 4,0U0 acres sowed with wheat, aud owned by thirty or forty farm- 

 ers. The wheat is all goue, and that legion looks like a desert. It is true that there 

 are a few lields in the midst left, but we expect to hear every day of their destruction 

 northeast and east of the railroad and along what is colled Free Church. The owners 

 are constantly on guard. When an advance detachmeut of grasshoppers appears it is 

 attacked with fire aud water, aud thus for the i)resent the enemy is kept at bay. Ou 

 this side of the river, all the live-acre, ten-acre, aud twenty-acre lots are without vege- 

 tation. To the south there are several hundred acres of wheat where the wheat is 

 over knee high aud growing as if in aracefor its life. We may save 500 acres of wheat 

 out of 5,000, which will give us bread, but we expected to have obtained $150,000 

 from this year's crop. Meanwhile we are waiting. Corn will bo planted in hundreds 

 of lields within teu days. All kiuds of garden-vegetables are now growing in boxes in 

 the hou.ses, waitiug their chance to appear with safetj' in the outer air. I expect to sow 

 half .''.n acre of beets and get a large return. There is no seed-wheat in the couutry ; 

 if there were a crop could be grown; and there is scarcely corn enough for seed. 

 There is no barley, nor have the farmers money to buy any. 



All this is a fair description. As a people we are certainly better oflf than those fur- 

 ther east, because we have water at our command, because our stock-range is preserver!, 

 giving to those keeitiug cattle their usual returns, while our mines of silver and gold 

 are unfailing. But these resources do not help our farmers at all. There are some 

 fannlies now utterly destitute. Every dollar they had or could borrow was put into 

 tho ground, and it will never return. Friends of such in the East should help them if 

 possible. Probably county commissioners can give some relief; the legislature may ; 

 Colorado is entirely out of debt. The grangers can do nothing for each other, lor all 

 are involved. 



The total destruction of crops between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains is 

 appalling, and I estimate that the number of people afflicted is nearly three mil- 



