610 EEPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



They laid their eggs in an unbroken, somewhat sandy soil, in little pock- 

 ets buried several lines deep. Mr. Ball counted several hundred holes 

 in a square foot of soil. They did not lay in cultivated, plowed land, 

 and should they do so, i)lowiug would be sufiBcieut to destroy almost 

 all the eggs. From the observations he made, Mr. Ball concludes that 

 this great plague will diminish as the cultivation of the soil increases, 

 and will finally be abated, as in Germany the locust invasions are much 

 less numerous than formerly. 



At Fort Gibson, ludiau Territory, they appeared September 16 to 28. 

 Korth of Texas, in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, according to the 

 Monthly Weather Eeview, August 6, grasshoppers appeared at La- 

 maa-'s, Nodaway County; Oregon, Mo., flying north 1st; northwest 2d, 

 4th'^ Gth ; south 11th and 19th ; northwest 22d ; southwest 23d and 25th ; 

 and south 26th. For other details the reader is referred to Eiley's 

 Kiuth Keport, as State entomologist of Missouri), and Minnesota, as well 

 as Iowa, according to the Monthly Weather Review, the locust ap- 

 peared late in summer and laid their eggs, which will hatch out in 

 greater or less numbers in the spring of 1877. 



THE LOCUST IN NEBRASKA IN 1876. 



How they swarmed in Nebraska last autumn may be seen from the 

 following extract from a correspondent of the New York Tribune : 



The grasshoppers are here. They have come to stay, and are busy perpetuatiug 

 their species. Early in August they reached the western portions of this State, but 

 "were partial in their depredations, devouring everything in some localities, doing littlo 

 damage in others. On the 12th of the month they made a forward movement, an I 

 aijpeared in the valleys of the Elkhorn, Platte, and Republican. Our local papers, act- 

 ing on the " ostrich " policy, suppressed the facts or misrepresented them, and all were 

 wishing for a favorable wind to carry the pesta beyond our borders. But a soft, south- 

 erly wind, varied by an occasional thunder-storm from the northwest, prevailed till 

 the 23d, when, aided by a stitf northwester, the grasshoppers rose and came from their 

 exhausted feeding-grounds upon the east and south portions of the State. They came 

 literally in clouds, looking like the frost-clouds that drift along the horizon on a win- 

 ter morning. They are devouring " every green thing," including shade-trees and 

 even weeds, such as the *' Jamestown weed" aud wild hemp. The great body of theui 

 seemed to pass south, moving in dense masses during the 23d, 24th, and 25th, aud will 

 probably be heard from iu Kansas and Missouri. I have suffered a total destruction of 

 CO acres of corn, as fine as I ever raised. The amount of damage in Nebraska is hard 

 to determine. The small grain was harvested ; corn and vegetables alone sutler. 

 Taking into consideration the fact that we always overestimate a standing crop of 

 corn, and are disposed to underestimate our losses, I think we shall be fortunate if 

 the corn realizes one-third the anticipated yield. A few words upon the " parasite " 

 delusion. The grasshoppers last year were to a great extent infested with the coral- 

 like insects, but my conviction is thart they are no more fatal to them than fleas are to 

 a dog. This season I have failed to find any "parasites." At present no natural en- 

 emy appears to interfere with the festive progress of the locust through this fertile 

 region. Many have concluded, and I am one of them, that for the present the locust 

 is an " incident" to this locality, the solitary " drawback" to our enviable lot, which 

 can be obviated in part by new" methods of farming, but which can be altogether re- 

 moved only by one of these unexplained and beneficent interpositions of Nature by 

 which certain species are occasionally overwhelmed with destruction, and appear 

 again only after a lapse of years. Warned by Mr. Riley's example, I will venture no 

 prediction as to next year, but present indications are that our small grain will suffer 

 early next summer, when the eggs now being deposited are hatched, but that the late 

 corn will be unmolested, iu consequence of the flight of the new brood to their uatural 

 home iu the Northwest. 



Another correspondent, Mrs. 0. L. Nettleton, of Red Willow County y 

 Nebraska, writes as follows to the New York Tribune : 



Locust prospects is a subject of much anxious thought with us, and I am tempted 

 to write of our experiences in this valley of the Republican River. I trust that efforts 

 to secure a thorough investigation and abatement of the pest may be successful. It 



