. , CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY, 1867-1873. 55 



tion. "The insects swarmed over the Northwest and did great damage 

 in Kansas, Nebraska, and Kortbeasteru Texas, and invaded the western 

 counties of Missouri very much as they did in 1874. They came, bow- 

 ever, about a month later than in that year. They were often so thick 

 that trains were seriously delayed on account of the immense numbers 

 crushed on the track." Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, and Utah also suffered. 



While in 1867 local damage was done in the spring by the young of 

 the swarms of the previous year, late in the summer new swarms flew 

 across the plains from the West and Northwest and invaded the border 

 States J in fact, the same States suffered as in 1866, as will be seen by 

 a glance at the tabular view. 



In 1868 and 1869, local injuries ensued from the ravages of the un- 

 fledged locusts early in the season, and reports from Montana, Idaho, 

 Dakota, Colorado, and Utah show that there was some trouble in those 

 Territories. 



The year 1870 was a season of comparative immunity from locust in- 

 vasions, though Iowa and Minnesota received some swarms, and the 

 insects were observed in Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. 



Kansas received slight injury from these pests in 1872, as well as 

 Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, Colorado, and Utah, but it was not marked. 



In 1873, the hosts gathered for a fresh onslaught upon the agricultu- 

 ral region bordering the great plains. The invasion of 1873, says Eiley, 

 was pretty general over a strip of country running from the northern 

 l)arts of Colorado and southern parts of Wyoming, through Nebraska 

 and Dakota, to the southwestern counties of Minnesota, and northwest- 

 ern counties of Iowa, the injury being most felt in the last two more 

 thickly settled States. ''The insects poured in upon this country 

 during the summer and laid their eggs in all the more eastern portions 

 reached. The cry of distress that went up from the afflicted people of 

 Minnesota in the fall of that year is still fresh in mind, and the pioneers 

 of Western Iowa, in addition to the locust devastations, suffered severe 

 damage from a terrific tornado." 



By far the most disastrous locust year, however, was 1874, as the more 

 thickly settled portions of the Mississippi Valley west of the ninety-fourth 

 meridian were invaded by dense and most destructive swarms. The 

 States of Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas were overrun, while portions of 

 Wyoming, Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Indian Ter- 

 ritory, and Texas were ravaged by swarms from the northwest, as they 

 were abundant that year in Montana and in British America. The 

 loss to these States and Territories was estimated at not much less than 

 $50,000,000. Much of the loss this year resulted from the progeny of the 

 invaders of 1873, which early in the season devoured the crops of the 

 region where they hatched, and eventually spread to the southeast. 

 Kansas suffered, perhaps, more heavily than any other State. This, 

 like most other locust-years, was one of long-continued drought, and in 

 Missouri the evil was complicated by the ravages of the chinch-bug. 



