STATISTICS OF LOSSES. 115 



local observers showing the ravages of the locusts in their respective 

 sections, which will convej' a more vivid and clear idea of the suffering 

 and distress occasioned by these calamitous visitations than can possi- 

 bly be obtained from a mere inspection of statistics and figures. The 

 estimate of the losses will be made by the second method, which consists 

 in comparing the yield of a locust year with that of a year when there 

 was no locust visitation, as, for example, 1874 with 1875, and eliminating 

 as far as possible all losses occasioned by other causes. 



Most of our readers will remember very distinctly the reports of des- 

 titution and suffering in the border States in 1874, occasioned by the 

 destruction of the crops in these States by the grasshoppers. It was 

 felt to be a national calamity, which called for assistance from the be- 

 nevolent and sympathizing throughout our country. So great, in fact, 

 was the calamity and so urgent the necessity for some action that the 

 legislatures of some of these States were convened in extra session for 

 the purpose of providing some means of relief. 



Although it is now apparent that much that was unwise and deroga- 

 tory to the best interests of these States was done by overzealous 

 workers, and that the methods of affording relief were in many cases 

 not the best, yet the universal feeling that relief was needed is evidence 

 of the severe loss sustained by the people in the locust-visited area. 



The following extract from the Third Annual Eeport of the State 

 Board of Agriculture in Kansas will give some idea of the immediate 

 effect of the locust- visitation in that State in 1874 : 



About the 25tli of July, one of those periodic calamitous visitations, to which the 

 trans-Mississippi States are liable once in from eight to ten years, made its appearance 

 in Northern and Northwestern Kansas, the grasshopper or locust. The air was filled 

 and the fields and trees were completely covered with these voracious trespassers. At 

 one time the total destruction of every green thing seemed imminent. Their course 

 was in a southerly and southeasterly direction, and before the close of August the 

 swarming hosts were enveloping the whole State. The visitation was so sudden that 

 the people of the State became panic-stricken. In the western counties, where immi- 

 gration for the last two years had been very heavy, and where the chief dependence 

 was corn, potatoes, and garden vegetables, the calamity fell with terrible force. Starv- 

 ation or emigration seemed inevitable unless aid should be furnished. At this critical 

 period the State board of agriculture undertook to collect correct data relating to the 

 effects of the prevailing drought and devastation of crops by locusts and chinch-bugs. 

 In the mean time Governor Osborne had issued his proclamation convening the legis- 

 lature in extra session on the 15th day of September. 



The following replies to the circular sent out by the board of agri- 

 culture to the different counties will give an idea of the destruction of 

 crops by the locusts: 



Barton County. — " Grasshoppers appeared July 26 and destroyed all the corn and 

 garden vegetables, together with the present year's growth of fruit trees of all kinds." 



Brown County. — "Appeared August 15; stripped the corn and nearly destroyed the 

 ear; took all the foliage from fruit trees, and seriously damaged the fruit." 



Clay County. — "Made their appearance in different portions of the county from the 

 25th to the 30th of July. Nearly all green crops were destroyed ; fifty per cent, of the 

 fruit crop ruined." 



Cloud County. — The most terrible calamity that has ever befallen Northwestern Kan- 



