496 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



generally over this area, what progress could this number of persons 

 have made towards collecting or destroying them during the season ? 

 But let us see the condition after the invasion. A correspondent of the 

 board writes : — " Having traveled over the largest portion of our county, 

 I find that about three-fourths of our people are almost entirely desti- 

 tute of food, fuel, and clothing. Some are now living on boiled wheat, 

 and not half enough of that." And the report adds:-r-" S. T. Kelsey 

 thinks that 500 persons in Eice County will need assistance." And now 

 we may ask in what condition they were to devote their time in collect- 

 ing grasshoppers' eggs, when want was staring them in the face. Had 

 a liberal reward been offered by the State or general government, 

 although they might have made but little progress in the work as com- 

 pared with the amount necessary to be done to be effectual, still it 

 would have done some good, and would have afforded at the same time 

 some relief; and I believe that it is always best, when it can be done, 

 to apply a remedy which will do good in one direction, if it fails in 

 another. 



[Note. — Since writing the above, many new facts in reference to the 

 history and habits of C. spretus have been ascertained, and will be pub- 

 lished in the report of the U. S. Entomological Commission ; although in 

 correcting proof now (1878), I have preferred to allow what was written 

 in 1875 to remain as it was, that the advance in our knowledge may be 

 shown by comparison.] 



Destruction of the larvce and pupce. — A number of methods to accom- 

 plish this desirable end have been tried and recommended, as rolling 

 the surface in order to crush them, collecting and destroying them in 

 various ways, burning, etc. There is no doubt but each of these meth- 

 ods will effect something, and may well be tried, according to circum- 

 stances ; and in thickly settled districts, where the larger portion of the 

 land is under cultivation and the force at command comparatively 

 strong, these means, and some others which are hereafter mentioned, 

 may, and j)robably will, suffice to hold the enemy in check, especially 

 if the farmers maintain their courage and fight the battle bravely and 

 in concert. In thinly populated districts, and even where the larger 

 portion of the land is not cultivated and the force at command is weak, 

 the case is not so hopeful, as the surrounding uncultivated sections will 

 furnish a new supply as rapidly as the previous one is destroyed. Pro- 

 fessor Eiley informs us that ditching as practiced in Western Missouri 

 appears to be the most effective mode of defense adopted, and he thinks 

 will prove a specific against the young. A ditch of the dimensions he 

 gives — two feet deep and two wide, with sharply perpendicular sides — 

 will doubtless prove an effectual barrier against the young larvse, but 

 the pupse, though halting for a time, will soon make the leap, and then 

 the column will press onward. But it must be remembered that it 

 requires tinie to dig a ditch of these dimensions around an entire farm: 



