chronology: MINNESOTA, 1877. 



87 



tie through. In spite of all this, the locusts were so numerous in some 

 counties as to destroy the larger part of the wheat crop, and some eigh- 

 teen counties in all have more or less loss to report. It is certain that 

 we have never seen of late years anything so nearly like total destruc- 

 tion as that which occurred in two counties last spring^ j it may be that 

 we have never in any other year had so many bushels of grain destroyed 

 by locusts ; but it is certain that in spite of all this, we have never raised 

 so large a wheat crop as in 1877. 



After the locusts attained their wings, the first flight noticed occurred 

 on June 15, 16, and 17, passing due north over Eock, Kobles, Murray, 

 and Lyon Counties. " The locusts that hatched in the State commenced 

 to rise during the last week of June, but the principal rising occurred 

 from the 1st to the 7th of July, and during this time the insects uni- 

 formly flew to the northwest. From this time on, till early in August, 

 the wind was quite changeable, and the insects appeared to beat about, 

 sometimes going northwest, and at others retracing their course and 

 going southeast and south. Towards the middle of August the winds 

 became more constant from the northwest, and the direction of flight 

 more constant south and southeast." (Eiley.) 



*' The insects that rose after the first week in July (mostly from re- 

 stricted parts of Minnesota and Dakota) were in many cases borne 

 southwardly and passed over Iowa and Kansas ; but up to August 15, 

 did no particular damage. The movements of the insects that bred in 

 Minnesota this year were very similar to the movements of those that 

 bred there in 1876. They at first left to the northwest, but were subse- 

 quently brought back and traveled over parts of Iowa, Nebraska, and 

 Kansas. The difference between the two years is, that the flights that 

 thus turned back on their original course in 1876 were recruited and fol- 

 lowed by immense and fresh swarms from the northwest plains regions, 

 where, far beyond the boundary line, they hatched and bred innumera- 

 bly 5 whereas the Minnesota swarms of 1877 have not been recruited, 

 because there were few eggs laid in 1876 and no insects of any conse- 

 quence reared in 1877 in said northwest country." (Riley.) 



9 The counties ravaged to a greater or less degree by the locusts in 1877, -with their wheat acreage, ia 

 as followR, according to Hon. T, M. Metcalf, Commissioner ot Statistics for Minnesota: 



Countiee. 



Acres. 



Counties. 



Acres. 



Kandiyohi .. .. .................. 



35, 337 



15, 63S 



18, 747 



43, 294 



6,151 



18, 218 



18, 788 



13, 318 



30, 711 



8,106 



6,470 



Todd 



6,868 

 19, 924 

 8 799 



Chippewa 



Wright 



TwenviUe 



Sibley 





McLeod 



20, 315 

 32, 786 

 12, 700 

 14 "^15 



Xicollet 





Pope 



Yellow Medicine 



Douo^laa 



Brown 



Eedwood 



Swift 



6 803 



otter-Tail 



Total, 19 counties 





Stevens 



337 188 



Grant 







