18 EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



RETROSPECTIVE. 



In all tbe States to the east invaded last year, the eggs of the locust were laid very 

 thickly, and the gravest apprehensions as to injury existed as spring opened. Nor 

 were these without warrant. Notwithstanding those eggs which were destroyed dur- 

 ing the winter by enemies, and those which prematurely hatched in the fall and during 

 the mild weather of February, enough hatched in April to cause consternation. 

 Throughout the invaded country lying east of Colorado, already visited by the Com- 

 mission—which includes all the States affected, from Texas to Minnesota — the insects 

 have disappeared without, in a general way, doing any very serious injury. What 

 with the increased number of birds and their other enemies, the more determined 

 efforts made, and improved methods of warfare employed against them by farmers, 

 the heavy, cold, and continued rains that followed the principal hatching, and the 

 greater debility and tendency to disease among them everywhere noticeable, the young 

 insects rapidly decreased in numbers, and those which survived to acquire wings rose 

 and flew to the northwest in scattering swarms. Even in Northwest Iowa and a few 

 counties toward the southwest of Minnesota, where the injury was greatest, the insects 

 have not remained to deposit as they did in past years. They continued to die off, and 

 finally left, or are now leaving, after doing more or less injury. 



I have been much interested in finding how thoroughly the conditions above de- 

 scribed have prevailed over all parts of Colorado having an altitude less than 7,000 

 feet above the sea-level. There were more eggs laid in Colorado last Fall than during 

 any previous year that those whom I have conversed with remember. The principal 

 hatching in April was followed by continued cold rains and snows, which would par- 

 tially thaw during the day and freeze again at night, so that the young insects were 

 alternately subjected to much slush and frost. In early summer there was by far the 

 largest amount of rain-fnll known for many years in the State. The insects were 

 weak and died and disappeared. Birds were unusually serviceable in destroying them, 

 and one little gray gregarious species, described to me as being abundant and efficient in 

 February, and which is perhaps the horned shore-lark {ErimopliUa aljgestris), I have 

 not noticed to the east. 



Very much the same condition of things occurred all over the State below the alti- 

 tude stated, whether in the northern half or along the eastern base of the Sangre de 

 Cristo and in the Cucharas Valley, where the insects hatched more thickly. Few 

 years have been more favorable to the Colorado farmer. I have noticed a number of 

 poor wheat-fields, resulting from defective irrigation or other causes, but the average 

 yield will, I think, be from twenty to twenty-five bushels to the acre. A good deal of 

 rye was so burnt out that it had to be prematurely cut and used for hay. Barley has 

 yielded from twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre, and the yield of oats will be fair. 

 Corn looks well, and stock of all kinds is in excellent condition. In Lake County, 

 where there is an extensive area under cultivation along the Arkansas, and where the 

 damage was great last year, few locusts hatched the present year. In Park County, 

 mostly devoted to grazing, the injury has been slight The San Luis Valley, which is 

 devoted to agriculture and stock-raising, has suffered little, and the beautiful Ute 

 Valley has also, as is usually the case, been singularly free. In the Wett Mountain 

 Valley, which is specially subject to injury, the farmers had to fight early in the sea- 

 son, and the injury in the valley of the Costilla, where fields were cleaned out by the 

 young locusts, was greater than in any other part of the State, The severe injury 

 extended southward into New Mexico, where the valley of the Taos has been swept 

 clean ; yet, on the opposite side of the mountains, the president of the New Mexico 

 Stock and Agricultural Association reports to Mr. Holly no injury occurred, the young 

 insects having disappeared. 



CONDITIONS IN THE PARKS AND PASSES ABOVE THE ALTITUDE OF 7,000 FEET. 



While in the lower plains and valley regions of the State the conditions have been 

 so similar to those which prevailed toward the Mississippi, they have been quite dif- 



