APPENDIX VI. — IOWA DATA FOR 1877. [107] 



brighter, there will be much damage done. Many fields of wheat and oats and corn 

 have been totally destroyed. Some damage has been done to young fruit trees, and 

 gardens as a general thing have been eaten up.— [A. H. Gleason, Little Sioux, May 3, 

 1877. 



Greenville County, May 9. — Grasshoppers are hatching by the million, and have 

 commenced to destroy the small grain. I think that not a tenth of the eggs are yet 

 hatched. The cold weather of March clid not kill them, as we had hoped. They will 

 take our crop unless the farmers can destroy them. We think we can kill them by 

 burning the prairie. Some one has invented a trap to catch them. 



Emmet County, May 9.— On the flat clay subsoil lands the grasshopper e_ggs are 

 mostly destroyed; on gravel and dry ridges they are in good condition, but are being 

 destroyed by birds and the little red bug. Egg-cells that contained eight eggs, only 

 two of them were sound, and they appear to be quite tender, and die when exposed to 

 cold. 



Carroll County, May 9. — In some of our grain fields the grasshoppers have com- 

 menced their operations, and, although most of the eggs are un hatched, still they seem 

 in a healthy condition, but it is reported in the northern part of the county large 

 amounts of the eggs are damaged and will not hatch. 



Adair County, May 9. — The grasshopper eggs have not hatched here yet. We have 

 had cold weather with snow the last month, and, we trust, when the weather comes 

 warm, we shall know the whole story, and find the eggs dead. 



Hamilton County, May 9. — The 'hopper eggs have commenced hatching along the 

 river, but I have seen none as yet on the prairie. It is impossible to determine at this 

 time to what extent the eggs were destroyed in March. I think only such as were 

 picked up by the birds. 



Hancock County, May 9.— Farmers are nearly done sowing. The prospect for a 

 crop would be very bright were it not for the grasshopiDers. It is generally thought 

 the eggs will not hatch, as the appearance of the eggs is the same as in February. If 

 there is any life in them we hope the recent storm has killed them. 



Humboldt County, May 9. — The grasshoppers have commenced hatching. In 

 warm, sheltered places plenty of them can be found. Many of the eggs will not 

 hatch, but from the great amount in the ground they will not be missed. 



Crawford County, May 9. — The grasshopper eggs have hatched in great numbers 

 on last year's breaking in sandy soil and on the roadside. They have commenced to 

 eat the small grain. 



Black Hawk County, May 9.— No sign of grasshoppers as yet. The last few days 

 of April were cold, with a heavy snow storm ; we hope it has finished the 'hopper. 



Adams County, May 9. — What few grasshoppers' eggs were laid have nearly all 

 died. There will be no trouble here from the present grasshopper crop. — Chicago Tri- 

 hune. 



The young have hatched in great numbers, but a great many have been destroyed 

 by the unusually wet spring. Still, enough still remain as alive or to be hatched to 

 do great damage. Indeed, even now whole fields of wheat and oats have been totally 

 destroyed; and corn, which is now just coming up, is being attacked. — [A. H. Gleason, 

 Little Sioux, Harrison County, Iowa, May 21, 1877. 



But my opinion, after riding to and fro over jjatches of a dozen square miles, is that 

 around the timber and along the warm lands there have been enough hatched to do 

 very serious injury, especially if warm, dry weather comes for the next month.— [J. 

 E. Todd, Tabor, Tremont County, Iowa, May 24, 1877. 



I have received your circulars and bulletins, for-which you have my thanks. A few 

 grasshoppers hatched in this vicinity during the warm days in February, and people 

 were very hopeful that the eggs would be so quickened that they would be destroyed. 

 Probably large numbers were, as they seem just now, for the most part, to be hatch- 

 ing on the dry, sandy knolls or knobs. For three or four weeks past they have been 

 slowly hatching in such sandy spots, and along the roadsides where grading has left 

 exposures of solid clay ; but until within a few days they have not seemed to be grow- 

 ing or threatening much damage. But on Saturday last Mr. J. D. Sells, a friend of 

 mine, who lives on the line between this county and Wright, six or eight miles north- 

 west of here, was in town, telling that he had had twenty-six acres of wheat utterly 

 ruined by the insects. Some stories, though not placing the damage so high, had been 

 told by other farmers ; but, as this is the season of *' croaking," little attention had 

 been given the matter. I therefore went out to his place on Sunday (yesterday), to 

 see for myself. I found his story true in every respect. He had sown twenty- six 

 acres of wheat on high and dry ground — prairie, broken last season. It came up finely 

 and gave i^romise of a splendid crop, and was at least six or seven inches high when 

 the grasshoppers began their work on it a few days ago ; but they had eaten it all up 

 except less than half an acre, and were closing in upon that very fast. A portion of 

 the field he had already plowed and planted with corn, and is to-day at work to replow 

 and plant the remainder. Not only had they eaten the wheat, roots and alJ, but there 



