PACKARD.] THE EASTERN RED-LEGGED LOCUST. 687 



to the Sim, to watch the thistle-blows as they passed across or near its 

 disk. I think I could have seen them in this situation several hundred 

 feet high. I injured my eyes permanently by indulging in this amuse- 

 ment. Whether the grasshoppers ever rose to so great a height I do 

 not know,, but I think that they generally flew at a lower level. Alto- 

 gether they would rise in clouds as one approached them; it Wfis only 

 an occasional one that would rise higher, and fly off before the wind, 

 and then only wiien the wind was blowing freshly. They did not fly 

 with their heads directly before the wind, but seemed to rise in the air, 

 set their wings in motion, and suffer themselves to be borne along by 

 the current. They generally, perhaps always, rose in the afternooii, 

 when the sun was hot and the wind blowing freshly." — (From accounts 

 furnished by Dr. N. T. True, Bethel, Me., February 28 and March 10, 

 18(38.) 



In Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to Mr. A. S. Taylor, the grass- 

 hoppers made their appearance in vast numbers. In 1859 Mr. Schenck, 

 of Franklin, Warren County, Ohio, wrote to the Ohio Farmer: "Last 

 year we had millions of them ; this year we have hundreds of millions." 

 For five years, he says, they have been increasing on his farm, and he 

 fears that unless some means are discovered for their destruction they 

 will totally ruin his own and his neighbors' clover-fields. The speed 

 of the Central Eailroad locomotives is considerably decreased by the 

 immense sw^arms of grasshoppers between Lancaster and Philadelphia. 

 One engineer stated that his train was forty minutes behind owing to 

 the number of grasshoppers on the track, and that he used twenty 

 buckets of sand, which was thrown on the rail in front of the driving- 

 wheels, to enable him to get along at all. Improbable as this story may 

 appear, its truth is vouched for by the engineer above alluded to. (Hay- 

 den's Eeport on Nebraska, 1872.) In 18G8, locusts, principally the red- 

 legged species, appeared, according to Riley, in countless myriads in 

 Ohio, invading the vineyards, "destroying entire rows, defoliating the 

 vines, and sucking out the juices of the berries. In the same year I 

 saw them in countless millions in many parts of Illinois and Missouri. 

 They actually stripped many corn-fields in these States, and had not the 

 crops been unusually abundant, would have caused some suffering. 

 They were very destructive to flower and vegetable gardens. In 18G9 

 they were, if anything, worse than in 18G8. I remember that in the 

 vicinity of Saint Louis, in addition to their ordinary injuries, they 

 stripped the tops of Norway spruce, balsam-fir, and European larch ; 

 took the blossoms off' Lima beans, severed grape-stems, and ate numer- 

 ous holes into apples and peaches, thereby causing them to rot. They 

 were indeed abundant all over Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and even Ken- 

 tucky, but attracted no attention east." — (Riley's Seventh Report.) 



In the year 1871, the summer of which was dry, while I was in Orouo, 

 Me., in July reports came from Aroostook County that the hay-crop 

 was being devoured by the locusts ; and in August the evil became still 

 worse, and they attacked the other crops, and became more or less de- 

 structive all over the State. They also, as quoted by Riley from 

 the Monthly Report of the Agricultural Department, abounded in Ply- 

 mouth County, Massachusetts, and in Vermont, as well as in Wayne 

 County, Pennsylvania. In 1872, they were very abundant in New 

 Hampshire, and in 1874 they were destructive in Missouri. In 1875 they 

 were very abundant in the salt-marshes of Essex, Mass., as I was in- 

 formed by a summer-resident there. 



In 187G, in the Monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture for 

 July, it was noted as injurious "in Sullivan, N. H. In Franklin, Va., 



