86 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



and from the fact that it was the beginning of a visitation which has 

 been prolonged to the present time by what, judging from former years, 

 would appear to be unusual circumstances. Each summer since 1873, 

 instead of being the scene of a general departure of the hatching swarms 

 as in former years, has seen portions of those swarms alighting but a 

 few miles from where they were hatched (generally in the next range of 

 counties, and sometimes in other parts of the same county), and depos- 

 iting their eggs for another brood. They not only appeared in the south- 

 western counties, but were flying over Detroit in July, 1873, and large 

 numbers of them fell into Otter Tail Lake, and they left eggs on the 

 Sisseton Agency reservation. The Eed Eiver Star (Moorhead) of June 

 28, says : " Grasshoppers are making their appearance on the Dakota 

 division of the Northern Pacific Eailroad ''; but there is no further allu- 

 sion in the Star. 



1874-'77. — New swarms coming in from the northwest in 1874 and 

 1876 have added greatly to the area of devastation m both these years, 

 and in the latter year to the areaof the egg deposit ; but fortunately the 

 heavy rains so diminished the numbers of those that did hatch, that 

 the State suffered in 1877 far less than was apprehended. I am satisfied 

 now that in 1875 there was an invasion somewhere, and that the eggs 

 laid in 1875, as well as in 1874 and 1876, were laid in part by ''outsiders." 

 No foreign swarms are known to have flown into Minnesota in 1877 j the 

 flight being all out of the State into Dakota, and consisting of the young 

 brood hatched from eggs laid in 1876. 



1877. — In Minnesota the young hatched in forty- two or more counties 

 lying mainly in the southwestern quarter of the State, the area, however, 

 not reaching the southwest corner of the State, but in a large number of 

 these so few and so scattering that, owing to a season unusually favor- 

 able for the growth of wheat, their presence was hardly noticeable. In 

 the central part of the egg area they hatched in excessive numbers. A 

 portion of the eggs were destroyed by parasites and otherwise during 

 the fall and spring, or at least failed to hatch. Some portion of the 

 young may have been destroyed by cold weather and rains in the latter 

 part of April, but at the time the hatching had hardly begun. During 

 the months of May and June, an unusual amount of rain-fall, well dis- 

 tributed through those months, delayed and in some measure prevented 

 hatching, while owing to the large number of cool, cloudy, or rainy days, 

 on which the locusts were averse to eating, the wheat attained a strong 

 and luxuriant growth, which became every day less capable of being 

 injured. The injury at this time in parts of Minnesota and Northern 

 Iowa was considerable, but the farmers and citizens were battling man- 

 fully with their little foes. For a time the prospect in this State was 

 somewhat gloomy, but the encouragement held out by the statement of 

 the commission that this year would in all probability end the present 

 invasion, and the favorable weather, together with the substantial aid 

 and encouragement of the governor and the business men of the cities 

 and towns and railroad companies, induced the ftirmers to fight the bat- 



