10 EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



EXTENT OF THE FAVORABLE STATE OF THINGS. 



Sacli are the generally favorable conditions throughout the area which I have al- 

 ready mentioned, and of which alone I can speak with assurance. How far the same 

 conditions prevail north of the Kansas Pacific, and in the other States threatened,! 

 cannot positively tell yet ; but similar reports of disappearance are very general, and 

 I am strongly of the opinion that we shall have a repetition of the comparative harm- 

 lessness of 1867. 



VIGILANCE STILL NECESSARY. 



I am the last to desire that this favorable report should lull your farmers into an 

 nndue sense of security. The security against injury will depend altogether on the 

 proportion of eggs which have hatched. Thus in the more sandy belt west of a line 

 roughly drawn through Junction City and Florence, not one per cent, of the eggs re- 

 main uuhatched ; while east of that line, where the eggs were laid later and the soil is 

 mostly colder and more tenacious, from one-half to three-fourths of them are yet un- 

 hatched, and, with few exceptions, sound. In the former area a few fields may suffer, 

 especially along the river-courses, but there will be no general destruction j in the lat- 

 ter the injury may yet be great, and should be provided against. 



REMEDIES. 



[Here followed a summary of remedies.] 



CONCLUSION. 



I have endeavored in the above hurried notes to comply with your request, and have 

 necessarily left much of interest unsaid. Altogether, the prospect is much brighter 

 than I bad dared to hope. There is some apprehension from the winged insects that 

 have been for some time leaving Texas, where little was done to fight the pest, and 

 where much injury has occurred in spots, particularly from Denison southwest- 

 wardly. But in passing from the south, the injury done by the winged insects is never 

 materially felt. They are unhealthy and less voracious, and the crops are well ad- 

 vanced. They also pass mostly over the western part of your State. Permit me to 

 remark, in conclusion, that I have met with few persons who do not feel that if taken 

 in time the young insects are easily mastered and need cause little alarm in future — 

 a fact which I have long since insisted on, and which is generally admitted by all who 

 have had experience. When the locust-scourge is fully understood, and the farmers 

 unite in determined effort to counteract it, it will cease to be so much of a bugbear, 

 and no longer interfere with the settlement of the beautiful and productive western 

 plains which it visits at irregular intervals. 



I have the honor to remain, yours, truly. 



C. y. EILEY. 



Geo. T. Anthony, 



Governor of the State of Kansas. 



We are under sincere obligations not only to Governor Anthony who 

 so materially assisted us, but, among many others, to Mr. Alfred Gray, 

 secretary of the State board of agriculture, for repeated favors and co- 

 operation. 



During the latter half of April and first part of May Mr. Thomas 

 visited Minnesota, Northwestern Iowa, and Nebraska, devoting his 

 attention at this time chiefly to an examination of the egg deposits, the 

 condition of the eggs, and the indications where the young were then 

 hatching out. He also at this time made arrangements throughout the 

 various sections of these States and Dakota with local observers, who 

 were to note all important facts in their respective sections relating to 

 the locusts, and report from time to time. Mr. Allen Whitman, of Saint 



