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Signal Office.) At Deuison, locusts arrived in September, 1874, remain- 

 ing until June, 1875. (W. A. Massey, United States Signal Office.) 



Uvalde was visited by small numbers of locusts in tlie spring (young) 

 and autumn of 1873 and 1875, and from October 1 to 15, 1876. Laredo 

 was visited in 1875 and 1876, appearing each year about the beginning 

 of November. (United States Signal Office.) 



1876. — Swarms of locusts reached Texas from the north and west, about 

 the middle of September, and from that time forth till winter were flying 

 very generally over the State, reaching eventually latitude 29^, or, more 

 definitely, to the Gulf all the way from the Sabine Eiver to Austin. 

 Their course was almost due south, and their injury confined to succu- 

 lent vegetables, shrubs, and fruit-trees, the orange and cotton suffering 

 more particularly. At Austin the cars for about ten days were so much 

 obstructed on the Texas Central Eailroad line as to necessitate their 

 stopping occasionally to clear the track of the grasshoppers. Eggs were 

 laid throughout the territory overrun, and the young hatched in largo 

 quantities during the mild weather of February, but those which hatched 

 near the Gulf had up to the date of March 5 been destroyed by heavy 

 cold rains that occurred the latter part of February. (Riley's ninth 

 report.) The invading swarms began to arrive late in August, and 

 continued to come for six weeks, and the course of their flight was gen- 

 erally due south 5 others state that they came from the northwest. 

 From reports received from the Office of the Chief Signal-Officer, United 

 States Army, we extract the following statements : *' In the fall of 1876, 

 they went down to Eastern Texas, as well as to the western part of the 

 State. Everything in the line of vegetables was destroyed, fruit-trees 

 and grape-vines damaged more or less. Small winter grain is preferred 

 to grass, and mostly destroyed." At Dallas, they first arrived Septem- 

 ber 20, from the northwest j the swarm was estimated to be 2,000 feet 

 high, and from forty to sixty miles wide. (J. Boll.) "The area invaded 

 by the grasshoppers in Texas, in the fall of 1876, was embraced between 

 longitude 96^ and 99^ (west from Greenwich, or 19° and 22' west from 

 Washington). It extended entirely across the State, from Eed Kiv.er 

 on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south, covering six degrees of 

 longitude, or an area about 200 miles in width by 360 in length, or 72^000 

 square miles ; this belt extends through the center of the State from 

 north to south, between parallel lines, with somewhat irregular edges, 

 determined by the course of the wind at different times during their 

 ^ march to the sea.' By reference to the map of Texas, it will be seen 

 that the best agricultural portion of the State was covered by them." 



1877. The spring was mild in Texas, and the young hatched the lat- 

 ter part of January, in February, and the last ones in March. From 

 March 1 to 10, at Mason, they did the most mischief, and began to fly 

 away by the 10th of May, but a good many remained until the 15th. 

 "It is said this pest grows worse and worse every year, and will event- 

 ually ruin the farmers if something is not done to check them. After 



